Semper Fidelis
by Kentlilyflower
Summary: Year 2008th. Private First Class Bella Swan of the U.S. Marine Corps is serving in Afghanistan. But it is not the talibans who make her freeze with fear and dream about the sooner return home every day. He is her main nightmare in this war. First Lieutenant Edward Cullen aka the Dracula. A/H.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary:** Year 2008th. Private First Class Bella Swan of the U.S. Marine Corps is serving in Afghanistan. But it is not the talibans who make her freeze with fear and dream about the sooner return home every day. He is her main nightmare in this war. First Lieutenant Edward Cullen aka the Dracula. A/H.

**Disclaimer:** The characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. The storyline belongs to MaryKent. I own nothing but the pleasure of translating this story).

**A/N: **Hello, guys!

First and foremost, this is not my story.. It's written by amazing **MaryKent**, and you can find the original version at s/8513817/1/Semper-Fidelis. I just enjoy translating it from Russian. Since English isn't my native language, I'm sorry for the mistakes which I will probably make. I'll be thankful for you pointing them out. MaryKent and I will be most grateful for your opinion and critique as well. Enjoy! Read and review). Yours, _liliflower_.

Prologue

"How are you going to tell your parents about this?" Bella Swan's best friend Angela Weber asked, while biting her lip.  
"Just outright." Bella answered with her chin up. They walked home from school together through the wet wood that smelled ofpine needlesandresin.  
"They will kill you!" Angela exclaimed.

"I don't care. I just can't go on like this anymore, Angie. They shout every day, and all the while trying to drag me into it." Bella sniffed, feeling the tears rushing in her eyes involuntarily, which immediately activated her chronic rhinitis. "Charlie promised to buy me a car if I say that I hate Phil and stay in Forks. And Renee promises me a trip to Europe, if I move in with her and Phil. I hate them. Both."

"Bells, it happens. Things will get better." her friend patted her on the shoulder. "Just wait a year, and we'll go to college together."  
"I don't want to wait. I want to get out of here right now!" Bella said stubbornly.  
They were already outside Bella's house, with Charlie's and Renee's cars outside. So they're both at home. It's time to tell them everything.  
And come what may.

"Bye, Angie" said Bella, barely moving her trembling feet. "Wish me luck."  
"Can't you still change your mind?" Angela looked at her hopefully. "You passed the tests. But you haven't signed the contract yet."  
"I'll tell them that it has been signed. I decided everything, Angie." Bella said firmly. "I will become stronger. And everyone will respect me. I'm tired of being the main school loser and the weapon in my parents' war."

"Good luck, Bella!" Angela said tearfully. Bella inhaled a deep breath and pushed the door in the house open. She immediately heard Renee's loud voice.  
"Bella will live with us, Charlie. She wants it. What had she forgotten in this poky hole of a place?"

"In this poky hole of a place, Renee, there are all her friends and her beloved father!" Charlie shouted not less loudly. "And by the way, she said that your Phil looks at her not like at a daughter!"  
"Swan, are you out of your mind?" Renee almost screamed. "You really have lost any shame!"  
"Have I? You brought your lover here and has almost fucked him in the full sight of Forks!" Charlie shouted, turning purple. "And this all in front of our daughter!"

Bella wiped of her soiled with needles and dirt shoes and slammed the door so that the glass in the wall bookcase rattled, and her parents turned sharply.  
"Bella, you've returned from school ..." Renee said distractedly.  
Charlie cleared his throat, as if it tickled in there, and was about to sit on the couch to watch TV, so not to get up from it until late in the night.  
"Wait, Dad," Bella said with suddenly shrunken voice. I have to say something to the both of you. I will not ... I will live with none of you."

"What?" Renee exclaimed in amazement.  
"What do you mean with none of us?" Charlie was taken aback.  
"I'm leaving" Bella said. "In three days."  
"Where to?" Renee and Charlie looked at each other, trying to determine which of them has advised Bella to tell such a nonsence.  
"To Parris Island" Bella answered.

"Parris Island? What is this place and why on earth are you going there?" Renee was surprised.  
"This is Marine Corps Recruit Depot," Bella said. "A week ago, I didn't go on a tour. I took tests for the enlistment. I signed the contract and in a few months I'm going to volunteer to serve in Afghanistan."  
There was silence in the living room of the Swan's home and Bella could even hear the buzzing, crawling fly on the TV screen.

"Bella, it's a joke, right?" Renee asked with a strange smile on her face.  
"No, it's not a joke" Bella replied and suddenly felt her shoulders straighten and the dull ache of the temples ceasing for the first time in the last six months.  
Looking at her parents' gaping faces, she quickly rose to her room.  
Closing the door, she heard Renee's heartrending scream, "Swan, because of you, my daughter goes to war! I hate you!"

With the door closed on the inside, Bella fell on the bed face down and made a phone call to Angela.  
"I told them, Angie."  
"And how did they react?"  
"They don't care. Now they blame it on each other." Bella said, listening to the screams wafting from below and the sound of breaking dishes.  
"Are you really going to do that?" Angela asked quietly.  
"Yes, Angie" Bella smiled bitterly, and the tears ran down her cheeks. "I know that even on a war I will be better of than with my own parents..."


	2. Chapter 2

The Concert Hall of the Forks high school was buzzing like a swarm of wild bees.  
Bella and Angela went together to the third row and sat apart from the rest.  
"Didn't they try to dissuade you?" Angela asked.  
"Of course, they did. Charlie promised me a new video game console, if I give up this idea, and Renee promised me a prom dress for $ 3,000." Bella grimaced. "They don't even realize that that's why I'm leaving. I can't stand their eternal bargaining. I feel like a thing auctioned.  
The headmaster Mrs. Griffith came on the stage and clapped her hands, urging students to silence. Never interested in public life Bella immediately buried herself in the cell phone and only a sharp jolt in the shoulder from Angela snatched her out of the game battles.  
"Bells ..." Angela whispered.  
"What?" Bella hissed irritably, missing the opportunity to strike in a virtual bowling because of Angela.  
"Look," her friend said and Bella reluctantly listened to the headmaster's chatter.

"As you already know, a month ago army recruiters came to our school" Mrs. Griffith said solemnly. "And four of our students have chosen this honorable holy way – to serve in the US Marines for themselves. Now the whole world is struggling with the most serious threat in the history of the mankind – the global terrorism. On September 11th the terrorism came to the house of every American family. And we need to show our enemies that we are not afraid, we are ready to defend our home, our loved ones, our values and peaceful future for all the mankind. As I said, four of our students enrolled in the ranks of recruits. And since due to the flood in March and subsequent repairs our school presents diplomas later than the others, our heroes will be forced to miss the prom to arrive to the recruiting station in time. So now I want to invite them on the stage, so that we can wish them to serve their country worthily, give them their diplomas and tell them how we admire their choice, their courage and love of our country!"

"Oh, shit!" Bella muttered, pressing her head in the shoulders. "I thought she'll just give me my diploma in her office."  
Bella definitely didn't want to go on the stage in front of the whole school.  
"Let's all greet our heroes!" Mrs. Griffith solemnly exclaimed and named first names of the three men, Bella's classmates from the baseball team. Bella was hoping that she was lucky, and that she was forgotten, but then the headmaster took a deep breath and blurted out "Isabella Swan!"  
"Oh, hell" Bella cursed again, feeling all the looks around going to her.

Three guys with proud smiles and the cheering audience already entered the stage. Bella smiled nervously at Angela and went after them, seeing from the corner of her eye the expression of utter amazement on the face of the school queen Jessica Stanley.  
Climbing onto the stage, Bella looked into the hall. Hundreds of pairs of eyes stared at her with a burning curiosity. Half of the looking at her now Forks students have likely heard for the first time today that they studied with some Isabella Swan, who was suddenly in the spotlight, along with the most handsome and popular boys in the school.

"Your parents are sitting in the first rows and I personally want to thank for the fact that they brought these Americans, the true patriots up." The headmaster continued her speech. "I ask you to take the stage near your children."  
Parents of the baseball players immediately approached them and stood next to their children. Only Bella stood next to Mrs. Griffith in not so splendid isolation.  
Considering that a diploma is just a mere formality, Bella ignored the request of headmaster, and have not called to school Charlie or Renee today.  
"Where are your parents, Miss Swan?" Mrs. Griffith hissed.  
"...They are very busy" Bella lied hesitantly.

The headmaster snorted because Bella ruined her holiday scenario, but then again returned a solemn smile on her face.  
"You've done the most important choices of your lives." She said, shaking hands with them. "I'm sure you will bring glory to our hometown. After all, you are the best of the best, and we are all proud of you!"  
Bella looked at the three guys that were above her head in height, gleaming white smiles, looking like the real wrestlers and her inner voice immediately shouted hysterically "Isabella Swan, you're absolutely nuts!"

"Angie, it's my fault that you're missing the whole year." Bella sighed, putting her diploma in the bag. They walked along the corridor, and all whom they met, followed them with a curious look, and some even strove to shake Bella's hand and wish her good luck. Never in her life Bella Swan was paid that much attention, and she wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible.

"You missed all the grants while trying to persuade me to come along in college." Bella said apologetically.

"It's okay," her friend waved. "I will help my parents babysitting the twins and the neighborhood kids. I like to be a nanny. I had a few offers from different universities and I will qualify for a scholarship next year."

Together they went in the bathroom, and as Bella went to the sink to wash her face she heard the cry behind from Angela. Two girls from the cheerleader team grabbed her and thrown in the hallway, slamming the door so that Angela could not return.  
"What do you need?" Bella turned around and saw Jessica Stanley appearing from the cubicle.

"So, you're the best of the best, the pride of the whole school, Swan." Jessica said, approaching Bella with sugary smile.  
"What do you want from me?" Bella asked, feeling threatened by Jessica.  
"You're going to serve in the Marines, Swan, and we'll never meet again. So, I and the girls want to make you a parting gift" Jessica grinned. "Too bad you'll miss the prom. We wanted to see how you'll dress up for it so much. But apparently, your dad didn't have enough money for the dress, and your mother doesn't care about you. All her thoughts are taken by the young lover."

"Leave me alone, Jessica!" Bella snapped and wanted to go, but the two Jessica's friends grabbed her hands and turned her to face their ringleader.  
"Don't leave, Swan. I said that we want to give you a gift." Jessica pulled a hand from behind her back and Bella saw with horror the scissors in it. "Hold her, girls. And I'll cut."

"Well, Swan, do you like our gift?" Jessica laughed, heading out into the corridor with her escort, cheerfully shouting from the doorway "Do not thank me! After all, we are so proud of you, soldier!"

The cheerleaders left the bathroom laughing, and the Hurricane Angela broke in.  
"Bella! They closed the door and would not let me enter! Oh, my God!" She froze in shock looking at her friend.  
Bella looked in the mirror and said calmly "Now I look like Demi Moore at least."  
Stepping on the discarded scraps of dark hair on the floor, Angela approached her friend and exclaimed "They are completely nuts! We must complain to the headmaster!"  
"No," Bella ran her hand over the sticking out in all directions short hair, which now adorned her head instead of the usual dark brown thick long curls. "I don't care and you still need to go through the prom.  
"This Stanley is such a bitch!" Angela screamed in anger and then covered her mouth.  
Bella laughed and hugged her friend "Well, it's good your father did not hear that!"  
***

Bella slammed the door and entered the house.

Charlie rose from the couch to meet her, pressing mute on the baseball game. Looking at her new hairstyle, which Angela carefully trimmed with her father's clipper, he said "Bella, I see you're serious about this, but I think you're making a mistake," he said , putting all the severity in his voice. "This job is not for a young girl. And especially not for a girl who reads books since childhood, and is not running around the woods with a gun, like Leah Clearwater. Her in there, I can imagine... You, on the other hand, stopped to walk with us on the hunt cause you were tired of the dirt and Harry's vulgar jokes. But it'll be even worse in the Marines," he paused and asked suddenly. "Is it all because of my divorce with your mother?"  
Bella looked at him in surprise. Charlie having such an insight was an apparent breakthrough. But she decided not to say anything at first, and listen to what he wants to offer.

"I will try to reach a compromise with Renee." Charlie said, but suddenly a lathered Renee jumped out of the room and blurted "Bella, you're not going to serve in the Marines! I talked to a lawyer. You can not sign the contract yourself, if you are under eighteen. And I will not give my consent!" Issuing this tirade, Renee triumphantly looked at her daughter.

Bella sighed and said, "I've already turned eighteen."  
"What?" Renee's eyes widened.  
"The fact that you were not there on my birthday, does not mean that it didn't happen." Bella replied.  
Renee shook her head and turned to Charlie, "You didn't even bother to call me!"

"What kind of mother are you if you do not remember when your daughter's birthday is?" Charlie retorted.  
"Maybe I don't remember something, but I took care of Bella my whole life alone while you were drinking in the bar with the guys and played poker with them!" Renee didn't stay in the debt. "You didn't do anything for your own daughter!"  
"And did you do? You took of and fled with your fancy man, abandoning her. Do you know how she was looked at in the school thanks to her mother behaving like a real slut!" Charlie flipped out.  
"I'm a whore? And who are you, Swan? You think I don't know where you always were on Saturdays!"  
"I was earning money for our family!"  
"Really? Where? Between the legs of Amanda Stevens?" Renee screamed.  
Bella realized that her parents have long forgotten about her presence as hundreds of times before and quickly went up to her room.

Five minutes later, she heard a knock on the door.  
Opening it, she saw Charlie.  
"Are you telling me you've reached the compromise?" Bella smiled sadly.  
"No," Charlie replied, his eyes downcast. "I just want to say that I'm sorry."

"Name, surname, age, place of residence," a high sturdy young man in military uniform with the insignia of Corporal demanded.

"Emmett McCarthy, 19, from Gatlinburg, Tennessee," high dark-haired guy with broad shoulders said. He was standing in front of Bella and his biceps were at least two or even three time bigger in girth than hers.  
"Table number 42," the Corporal consulting the list said. "Next."  
"Isabella Swan, 18, Forks, Washington," Bella said.  
Corporal looked at her slender girlish figure with an obvious surprise, but still said,

"Table number 43."  
"Where's the damn table?" Eyebrows furrowed, Emmett McCarthy muttered under his breath, straightening his baseball jacket.  
"There" Bella said, instantly navigating in a noisy, filled with future marines Hall of the MEPS (auth. - Military Entrance Processing Station).

McCarthy turned his eyes searching for the source of the sound and saw Bella, only after bowing his head.  
"Where is it there?" He asked.  
"There - it's there." Bella waved to the right. "I have a nearby table."  
"Ok," McCarthy perked up and went after her. "Did you come here to support your brother or boyfriend?"  
"I am a recruit." Bella replied.  
"Are you really?" Emmett laughed heartily. "Great joke."  
Bella did not answer him, knowing that trying to prove something to the baseball or football player is completely pointless, and went to her desk.

"Name, age, place of residence." The man in uniform demanded again - this time the man of forty-five years with a strict unsmiling face.  
"Isabella Swan, 18, Forks, Washington." Bella repeated, glancing at Emmett, who confidently sprawled on a chair waiting for his recruiter.  
Recruiter looked at Bella, and she tried to take as much as possible confident look, the same as Emmett.

"You've passed the test ASVAB (auth.- Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery), psychological tests and medical examination, Miss Swan . The result of your test ASVAB is 56 points with the pass mark 31." The recruiter said, clicking on the mouse. "This allows you to rely on signing the contract with the US Marine Corps. Congratulations."  
"Thank you, sir." Bella said, surprised with such a success, for she herself did not feel so confident on the tests, than suddenly she heard a loud cry from Emmett.  
"28 points?" He roared like a wounded bear. "I could not get so little. I can kill a grizzly with my bare hands. Since my childhood I hunt with my father in the Appalachians. I can shoot better than any sniper!"  
"You showed a low level of general knowledge and political culture," the recruiter replied.  
"How so?" Emmett was surprised.

"For example, you wrote that Iraq is in South America, and that Al-Qaeda is the name of the leader of the Taliban."  
"And is it not so?" Sincerely amazed Emmett asked and Bella couldn't help but laughed.

"Do not get distracted, Miss Swan," the recruiter besieged her. "Your tests and physical examination indicate a high level of intelligence, psychological stability, high level of theoretical knowledge of general and political culture, but it also showed a low level of physical fitness."  
Bella sighed. This was expected, but still unpleasant.

"In this regard, we can offer you a service in the department of logistical support with the passage of the necessary training," the recruiter said. "The contract is valid for five years, it includes medical insurance..."  
"No, no, no." Bella immediately imagined Charlie's and Renee's phone calls, beckoning her on every vacation, them arguing outside the gates of her base, while she is busy with accounting and inventory of the boxes with equipment or sleeping on the computer in a stuffy little room. "I want to serve in Afghanistan in a combat unit! Or in Iraq!"

"If Iraq is not in South America, then it's in Africa." Emmett thought desperately in a nearby chair and seeing a sneer on the face of recruiter said "Who cares where this Iraq is? The main point is that Emmett McCarthy will beat America's enemies wherever Uncle Sam sends him! I can walk 40 miles without stopping, go hiking with a backpack, I am the best tracker in my town. And I'll be a good leader - my baseball team won the state championship five times!"

Bella looked at him and thought that a hybrid of her and Emmett would be a perfect soldier, but individually they are both committed losers.  
"Miss Swan, I understand your patriotic feelings..." the recruiter began but suddenly was interrupted in his speech by the sound of the gunfire from the corridor.

"What was that?" Bella jumped up from her chair and ran to the glass door. Emmett leaned against the glass behind her.

"You will not deprive me of my dream!" They heard a male voice faltering, standing with his back to them there was a man with a gun in his right hand. "If you don't take me in the Marines, I'll shoot in her head!"

The guy turned around and Bella so him pressing a gun to the head of the crying from fear woman.  
Bella's heart suddenly dropped somewhere in her stomach, and her sight darkened.  
There in the corridor of the conscription depot the crazed guy was holding her mother at the gunpoint.


	3. Chapter 3

"Hey, are you okay?" Emmett grabbed Bella when she swayed in his direction because of the dizziness. "Do you know this guy?"  
"No," Bella said quietly. "This woman... she's my mom."  
"Oh shit!" Emmett exclaimed.  
An empty space was immediately formed around the guy with a gun and someone sent for one of the psychologists who conducted the interview with recruits.  
Bella saw as in a fog that all recruits were promptly moved outside. Only they were isolated behind the glass door - the guy with a gun was standing just outside of the door and blocked the way out to everyone who was in the audience along with Emmett and Bella.

The psychologist came in a few seconds and stopped in a distance of approximately twenty feet from the guy and said.  
"Hi. I'm Steve. Let's talk about what happened. What's your name?"  
"We have nothing to talk about." The guy snapped, continuing to poke the gunpoint to the temple of the hostage. "You've turned me down."  
Renee was hysterically crying, trembling all over.  
"You take all the rubbish: blacks, gays, or those damn immigrants who are not here for our country but for the sake of the money. And you deny me, although I always, always was the best around!" The guy's eyes darkened with anger. "I've always dreamed about it. I was born to become a Marine. And you messed it all up."  
"Calm down," Psychologist replied in a smooth, friendly voice. "Tell me, why were you denied?"

"Because I didn't pass your fucking psychological test!" The guy shouted and Emmett chuckled,  
"It is not surprising. You're really crazy, dude."  
Bella looked at him and suddenly the mist before her eyes cleared.  
"McCarthy," she jabbed Emmett in the ribs.  
"Yeah, what?" Emmett turned to her. "Easy. They will talk him in and take down."  
Psychologist took a careful step towards the guy and said.  
"Let the woman go. It's not her fault that you were refused. She doesn't even work here.  
"Let me go, please!" Renee begged immediately. "I'm pregnant! I'm having a baby! Don't kill me, please!"  
Bella heard the ringing in her ears. What did she just say?  
"Hey, so what do you want from me?" Emmett pulled her out of the coma as the crazy recruit slapped Renee on the head and shouted,  
"Shut up, bitch! Your squeal infuriates me!"

Bella realized that an attempt at negotiations failed miserably and the guy just got more enraged and began to lose the residues of his self-control. Something had to be done urgently.  
"Emmett, you failed the tests as well, right?" Bella asked.  
"Well... Kind of." Emmett sighed. So what?  
"He won't listen to them. They denied him. He hates them." Bella said, while looking at psychologist talking about something with the military. Their faces were carefully concealed of confusion.  
"And whom will he listen to?" Emmett didn't understand, so Bella tilted his large head, and whispered in the baseball player's ear, "You."

"Where are you heading, Mr. McCarthy?" The recruiter anxiously exclaimed rushing to stop Emmett. "Move back immediately!"  
"We have a plan, sir!" Bella exclaimed.  
"What plan?" The recruiter looked at her suspiciously. "There are enough professionals to solve this problem."  
"No. He won't talk to those who'd kicked him out." Bella said confidently. "Emmett, though, is the same recruit as he, who also didn't pass the selection. He can persuade him to put the gun down."  
"And if not, this guy will shoot!"  
"He's already going to shoot. Look at him. He's already on the verge." Bella pointed at the guy whose face was covered with cold sweat, with pupils narrowed, as if after taking the drug.  
Recruiter stepped aside and said resignedly "Just don't do something stupid."

Emmett looked at Bella and opened the door.  
The guy immediately turned to him with a frightened Renee.  
"Don't move, or I'll kill her!" He cried.  
"Okay, okay." Emmett raised his hands. "Calm down, dude. I am not one of those clerks in uniform. I also wanted to become a Marine, and I've been sent home as well. They sit here at their computers and think that their tests mean something. Their tests are just full of shit!"  
Psychologist waved his arms, urging Emmett to silence, but the last caught an approving glance from Bella and continued.  
"Let's just get out of here, man. Where are you from?"  
"From Connecticut." The guy replied. "I've done so much to get here, and they just flipped me of."

"And I came from Tennessee. All Gatlinburg cheered for me. It's shameful to come back home now." Emmett said.  
"My father won't let me back home." The guy said. "He hates losers. I have to become a Marine. I have to."  
"To hell with the Marines, dude. We're not stupid, they are the ones stupid with their tests. Why in the hell should I know where Iraq is?" Emmett shrugged his shoulders.  
"I know where it is." The guy said, holding Renee and still clutching his gun.  
"Well, then you're smart as well. You can go to college... What is your name, by the way?"  
"Riley." The guy answered. "Riley Biers."

"I'm Emmett." the baseball player said. "Hey, Riley, this way you won't get into the Marines. Drop the gun and fuck it all. It's not you they don't need. It's you that don't need them. They spit on our dreams. So why should we spoil our lives because of them? We'd better start playing baseball!"  
Riley looked at him contemplating.  
"But what will I tell my father..."  
"Tell him it's not as cool there as they say in advertising." Emmett said. "Come on, Riley, drop the gun, let the woman go and let's get out of here."  
Riley looked doubtfully at the gun in his own hand, as if realizing for the first time that he was holding a real weapon, threw it on the floor, then fell to his knees and put his head in his hands.  
One of the military immediately grabbed Renee and quickly led her to a safe place, while the other two knocked Riley to the ground, pushing the gun away from him.

Shocked Emmett scratched his forehead and said, with eyes round from astonishment.  
"Fucking hell! It really happened!"  
Pale as death Riley was hauled to his feet and led to the door of the corridor, when he saw someone in the crowd, and his face twisted.  
"Vicki! Victoria!" He shouted, trying unsuccessfully to escape. You would not leave me, would you? Vicki!"  
Bella turned and saw a girl with luxurious red hair who, after throwing Riley a disdainful look with her cat eyes, turned and walked away quickly, losing all the interest in what happened.

"No, Vicki! No! Don't leave!" Riley shouted again, but then was dragged away.  
Bella immediately ran to Renee and embraced her tightly. Renee buried her head in her shoulder and sobbed harder.  
"Are you okay?" Bella asked when Renee calmed down and took a cup of coffee from the colonel, who came to bring her a formal apology.  
"Yes, yes, all right!" Swallowing her tears, Renee replied. "Bella, it's awful in here! I flew to persuade you to come back. But now you see it for yourself, it's a nightmare! I won't leave you to these madmen!"  
"Mom, I know what I'm doing. You always did what you wanted, and you didn't care what others would think. Why could you leave us with father in Forks and I can't go into the Marines?" Bella carefully looked at Renee. "And when were you going to tell me that I will have a brother or sister?"

"When I finally get a divorce from your father." Renee admitted. "I don't want him to claim the fatherhood of the child!"  
"How can he claim to be the father of Phil's child?" Bella was surprised.  
"The fact is that I'm not sure whether this child is from Phil..." Renee began, but then stopped and turned sharply to the colonel, crying. "I'll sue you to the court! Where did that madman get the gun?"  
"He waited for the guard in the bathroom, hit him and took the gun." The colonel replied. "I'm sorry, ma'am. We are ready to discuss with you the issue of compensation for the moral damage."  
"I'm calling my lawyer!" Renee said, finally coming to herself.

Knowing her mother's temper, Bella was sure that Uncle Sam will have to fork out for the mistake, to avoid the all-American scandal.  
"Because of you my child suffered terrible stress even before the birth!" Renee was fuming, completely forgetting about the purpose of her visit.  
Bella, knowing from the fire in Renee's eyes that her mother is just fine and is back again in her element, went to the surrounded by other recruits Emmett.  
She could not understand how Renee couldn't be pregnant from Phil. From whom, then? God, did she cheat on him as well? But then why to mention Charlie?

Or had she and her father not only bickered recently?  
It's high time to end this soap opera!  
Seeing Bella, joyful Emmett immediately jumped to her, leaving his fans.  
"Just how did you know what to tell him? It turned out just like in the movies!"  
"Somehow it came to my mind." Bella replied honestly. "You've got a great memory. You recited everything word for word. It's strange that you couldn't remember where Iraq is."  
"I just didn't learned." Emmett blurted innocently. "I was training all the time instead of geography, my coach asked for me!"  
***

After the police left, having interviewed all the witnesses and taking Renee with them to testify, one of the military clerks came to the center of the hall and said into the microphone.  
"Since the emergency was successfully resolved, we can get back to work. I ask all the staff of the station and recruits to go back to their duties now."  
Bella and Emmett returned to their recruiters and sat awaiting for their sentence. Dropping into a chair, Emmett immediately exclaimed.  
"I don't think your tests are shit. And I really want to become a Marine. Everything I said there, it was..." - Emmett start thinking, but the recruiter himself finished the phrase for him.  
"A military trick?"

"Yeah, yeah." Glad Emmett agreed. "It was a military trick!"  
"It was impressive, Mr. McCarthy." The recruiter said without any irony. "You have demonstrated uncommon ingenuity, courage and an ability to quickly and adequately react in the emergency."  
"Wow, thank you, sir." Emmett smiled. "But it was not my idea."  
"Whose than, Mr. McCarthy?"  
"It belongs to this little one." Emmett pointed to a nearby table where Bella sat slouched. "Isabella Swan."  
Recruiter smiled at Bella's embarrassment from Emmett's loud statement and said,  
"In any case, you have shown courage worthy of respect, Mr. McCarthy. That's why Colonel Rogers believes that for your act we can add three points to the results of your test."  
"Twenty-eight plus three... It's..." Emmett froze. "Thirty-one?"

"Yes, thirty one. You secured the minimum qualifying score, Mr. McCarthy, and now you can sign a contract with the US Marine Corps." The recruiter said. "Congratulations."  
"Wow!" Emmett jumped on a chair so that it almost fell out from under him. "You will not regret it, sir. I will prove that I am the best. And I'll find out where the damn Iraq is, you have my word!"  
"I have no doubt, Mr. McCarthy." The recruiter laughed. "Now let's define the terms of your contract."  
***

"So, Miss Swan, let's continue." The stern recruiter said in a casual tone carefully looking at Bella. "We stopped on choosing your speciality. As I said, we offer you the service in the Marines in the logistic support division. I understand your desire to serve your country and fight its enemies, Miss Swan, but the law prohibits women from taking a direct part in hostilities."  
"There are already hundreds thousands of women in Afghanistan and Iraq." Bella replied.  
"But they mostly serve in the rear parts and parts of support." The recruiter said. "And besides, you are very young, Miss Swan. You have performed admirably in a very difficult situation right now, so I'll be honest with you. The Marines now has a task to increase the average age of those killed and injured during the Afghan and Iraq campaigns. Now it is 22 years, although there are less odious figures in the press and the public domain thanks to the competent work with statistics. Antiwar organizations have already secured for us the image of "child killers" since the Vietnam campaign and we strive to get rid of that image."

"So you'd better call for reservists, many of whom have families and children and who don't want to fight, while you have the young volunteers?" Bella protested.  
"It's the law, Miss Swan," the recruiter said and after a pause he asked. "Tell me, why do you need it?"  
Bella wanted to say something about patriotism and desire to bring order and democracy in the war-torn Middle East, but instead said suddenly.  
"I know I can do something important. I can become better and stronger. Today I helped to save my mother from an armed madman. You know, I never thought that I was capable of doing that. I realized... I realized that I truly can be a Marine and that I can be useful. Really useful."

She paused, thinking that her words now sounded somehow childish, but then suddenly she saw sincere sympathy in the eyes of the recruiter, so unexpected on his dry , strict face.  
"Miss Swan, I can offer you a service in the reserve," he said. "This implies a minimum employment - visiting places of service one weekend in a month and two weeks in a year..."  
"But I can be called in?" Bella revived.  
"As I said, it is unlikely. And the service in the reserve is not as well paid as a full-time service," recruiter flipped through his file and added in a low voice, "But if you choose the reserve start learning Pashto immediately and make sure to have an ownership of the language written in your record."  
"Pashto (1)?" Bella looked at him in surprise, and the recruiter continued.  
"And Dari (2). Do you understand me, Miss Swan?"  
Bella smiled and nodded.  
"Yes, I understand you, sir. I choose the reserve!"

(1) Pashto and (2) Dari – two official languages in Afghanistan, are spoken by the most of the population in this country.


	4. Chapter 4

Bella taped on a white sticker with her name, surname, age, place of residence and military specialty and looked at Emmett. McCarthy could not pull out a label from the sticker and now was trying to do it with his teeth. Finally, he stuck a sticker on his chest and began to scrape off pieces of adhesive tape from his tongue.  
Bella laughed and turned to the rest of the recruits.  
There was a small crowd at the office door. Along with the recruits there also were their parents with video cameras, their wives and even infants.

"My parents will come only on the day of initiation." Emmett said. "Sister is due to give birth from day to day. She needs them now more."  
"Do you have a sister?" Bella smiled. Somehow she immediately thought that Emmett has quite a large southern family, enough that it barely fit in the room on Thanksgiving.  
"Yes. I have a sister and two brothers." Emmett confirmed her thoughts. "As well as grandfather, grandmother and a bunch of dogs."  
"Attention, recruits!" They were approached by the officer. "Come to the office in groups of fifteen people and stand in three rows of five people in each. Attendants should stand at the entrance on both sides. The first group goes in, the others are waiting for their turn."

Bella and Emmett along with thirteen other recruits went into a small room with wooden paneled walls, red and blue carpet and a rostrum at the opposite wall, behind which there were Stars and Stripes to the right, and the banner of the Marine Corps to the left. Relatives and friends quietly went and stood along the walls, in anticipation for the main reason they came here today. Once the names of the recruits were included in the list, the officer entered the room and stood in the rostrum.

"You've honorably passed all the tests and proved that you deserve to become Marines." He said. "Now you will take the oath. And from this moment you shall always be faithful – to your country, your President, your comrades and commander." After a pause, the officer said. "Raise your right hand."  
Bella and Emmett along with the rest raised their hands. Everything inside Bella shivered as if she was about to dive into the icy water.  
"Repeat after me." The officer said. "I, call your name."  
Bella took a deep breath and said, "I, Isabella Swan..."  
"I do solemnly swear."

"I do solemnly swear." Bella repeated, feeling a lump in her throat rising.  
"To support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic."  
"To support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." Bella's voice sounded in the mutual chorus of young voices, but it seemed to her that all this was happening with someone else.  
"And to bear true faith and allegiance to the same."  
"And to bear true faith and allegiance to the same." Bella saw the fervor with which Emmett repeated the words of the officer, and smiled.

"That I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of those officers appointed over me according to regulations and the uniform code of military justice." Having repeated the words of the officer with a solemn feeling, Bella caught a happy look of Emmett, who looked like a kid on the Independence Day, and suddenly the quiver of her body ceased.

"So help me God." The officer finished the oath.

"So help me God." Bella gasped and suddenly saw Renee standing by the wall, filming her daughter on a cell phone camera. New recruits already started to enter the place to take their oath so Bella went to the door. Renee went out with her and, after a pause, she asked:  
"Have you already signed a contract?"  
"Yes. An hour ago" Bella replied. "You were still at police station."  
"I was in a hurry." Renee jammed. "So, that's it. Are you now in the Marines?"  
"Yes," Bella nodded. "Now I'm in the Marines."  
***

"I'll call you as soon as it'll be allowed." Bella promised, picking up her few belongings.  
"Bella, your father thinks you're doing all this because of our scandals with him..." Renee looked at her like a cat from the "Shrek". Her eyes pleaded with Bella to say "No" so that Renee's conscience could sleep again and allow her to continue her carefree life.  
Bella decided not to deprive her mother of this enjoyment. Indeed, from this moment her fate is no longer determined by her parents. Her future and her life is now in possession of Marine Corps for at least five years.  
"No. I'm just interested in this job. Insurance, good money, benefits. This is a good start in life." Bella said, repeating all that she read in the promotional booklet. "I have to go. I'll call you."

Renee smiled. She believed in what she wanted to believe.  
"Be careful, Bella." She hugged her daughter.  
"Yes, yes, of course." Bella promised and kissed Renee on the cheek, then ran at full speed to the bus.  
"I already took a seat for you." Emmett alerted her, when Bella got on the bus.  
Bella plopped down next to him. The guy immediately leaned back in his seat with blissfully happy face.  
"It feels like I played the final state championship today, my legs fall off." He exhaled.

"Emmett, are you in reserve as well? - Bella asked.  
"Yes. I was so glad that agreed to everything. And just after signing a contract, I realized that I've miscalculated." McCarthy sighed. "I hope I will be quickly mobilized. Reserve, this place is for suckers. You seemed to be recorded in the acting army. Why did you enroll into the reserve?"  
"Recruiter hinted that there I have a higher chance of getting into Iraq or Afghanistan." Bella replied. "You just need to learn Pashto and Dari, and then during the call they won't look at any gender or age. In the army I would have been immediately sent to some warehouse."  
"Pashto and Dari? What is this garbage?" Emmett did not understand.  
"These are the two official languages in Afghanistan" Bella said. "Practically nobody knows it among our military. And it gives me a chance."

"How do you know so much?" Emmett marveled at her.  
"I googled it." Bella laughed.  
"Cool. But why a girl would want to go in Afghanistan?" Emmett asked.  
"Why do you ask?" Bella slyly looked at him.  
"I am a man. I love my country and I want to fight her enemies." Emmett said without hesitation. "And I'm a lot stronger than you."  
"I think the trigger is pressed on with a finger, and not with the thing that differs you from me." Bella winked, emboldened from the beginning of a new life.  
Emmett grew dumb with astonishment, and a loud cheerful female voice called out from the back row, "That was a good one, sister! And you, my friend, need to close your mouth, or you'll catch a fly!"

Bella turned around and saw the dark-skinned girl with a hundred braids on her head in a T-shirt with a snarling bulldog muzzle on her chest.  
"I am Zafrina." She introduced herself, smiling widely .  
"Bella." Bella smiled and then saw the same red-haired girl, who unfortunate Riley was unsuccessfully calling for, getting on a bus.  
Not noticing anyone, with her head held high, she went through the bus and, without saying a word, landed near Zafrina. Then she pulled out her player and put on the headphones.  
"Actually, I took this place for my friend." Zafrina said, gently poking the redhead on the shoulder and showing her jacket hanging on the back.  
"Don't spread your hands!" The girl immediately soared. "This seat doesn't have your friend's name on it. So let her sit on another bus and next time she'll arrive on time.  
"It's rude, dear." Zafrina frowned, but the girl, which, as Bella recalled, was Victoria has put in her headphones again.

"That bitch." Zafrina grimaced. "If not for the sergeant, I would have showed her how to behave." She got her phone then, dialed the number and said loudly. "Kashira, dear, some bimbo took your place here. There is a sergeant in a bus, so we will have to wait. But then we'll teach her good manners together."  
Zafrina removed her phone, and Victoria looked at her and cooed in a sweet voice.  
"You are the one who'll have to learn some manners, which are accepted in civilized countries. You have to be careful with your green card. One incident, and you return on a plane home."  
"Hey girls, break it!" Emmett said, noting that Zafrina was already prepared to cling into Victoria's luxurious hair and that sergeant, hearing their screams, moved toward them looking like Major Payne.

"Silence, you all. You are not on a school bus here!" He snapped. "We're going to the airport and on the plane that will take you to the place of the twelve-week basic training in recruit depot Parris Island. Everyone take your seats. For the cat fights you'll get in a guardhouse on arrival. Marines, order all clear?"  
"Yes, sir!" Privates sitting in the cockpit chorused as the bus drove off.  
Emmett collapsed like the grizzly bear in his seat again and, stooping to Bella, said with an irony.  
"I see it'll be fun in the barracks."  
***

The flight was so tedious and, as it seemed to Bella, painfully endless, and when they got back into the bus again, she fell asleep almost immediately. She woke up when the bus jerked and stopped. Realizing that she rested her head in the most indecent manner on Emmett's shoulder during her sleep, Bella quickly straightened up and rubbed her eyes to wake up faster.  
"Get up!" As always loudly the sergeant ordered. "Out of the bus with your belongings!"  
That was all he said, and everyone took their stuff and got out.

Bella had a stiff back, her stomach was empty, and the head was aching from lack of sleep.

The street was dark and cool. So when their sergeant came with two more men in uniform, and they were ordered to proceed to registration in a small gray building , Bella felt incredibly happy, sensing the proximity of food and sleep.  
But when they got inside, the sergeant ordered them to wait again, explaining nothing.  
"It seems that we'll be given a uniform and a haircut now." Emmett said. "Although I have nothing else to cut. If only to make me bald." He patted his close-cropped head.  
"Me too." Bella grinned, repeating his gesture.  
"Girls don't need to cut their hair." Zafrina said and looked angrily at Victoria's fiery mane. "Unfortunately."

Bella also looked at Victoria and received a supercilious look of beautiful but unpleasant eyes in response. With bitterness Bella realized that there was a new Jessica in her life and her good mood had declined. Leaving Emmett to chat with Zafrina, Bella went to the wall where the portraits of Marines, who received high military awards for their exploits, hung.  
Studying series of heroes' faces, Bella stopped near one of the portraits, attracted by the unusual eyes of a young officer in the photo. There was a golden crown around the pupils of his eyes, making them from ordinary green seem like amber. But not only the color got Bella interested in those eyes. Despite the rigor and formality of pictures, they were filled with gentle irony, which was visible in his little smile that touched his lips. Concerned, Bella looked at the sign below the photo.

"Second Lieutenant Edward Anthony Cullen, 3rd Division of U.S. Marine Corps. Navy Cross for the outstanding heroism in "Operation Enduring Freedom - Afghanistan" (2006)".  
"Edward Cullen." Bella said and shivered, hearing Emmett's voice from behind.  
"You'll see, soon there will be the photo of Emmett McCarthy hanging!"  
"Privates!" They heard the voice of Sergeant. "Your Drill Instructors will come after you now. From this very moment they become your commanders on the passage of basic training."  
Bella and Emmett turned around and saw three people next to their sergeant, two men and one woman.

Guessing that girl-recruits will have to deal with the Drill - woman, Bella looked at her carefully. Judging from the stripe on her uniform Drill Sergeant wore surname Yang.  
Swarthy and slender, with shiny black hair and bright dark eyes, she would have been incredibly beautiful, if not for the three very noticeable scars that ripped up the entire right half of her face, distorting the regular features. Because of the scars her right eye seemed bigger than the left and slightly squinting, and the right side of her mouth curved in eternal grim grin.  
"Our sergeant is Joker." Zafrina said.  
"No, not Joker. Two-face." Bree Tanner hemmed, the youngest of the recruits. "I just hope she'll show us only her bright side..."

**A/N**: So, the first few chapters of this story are posted. It's not much, but it explains how Bella got into the Marines. It acquaints you with a few characters of this story as well. So what do you think? Review!


	5. Chapter 5

"You may call your parents." Sergeant Young said, giving recruits the cards for public telephones. "Cell-phones, as well as other things not covered by statute, will be removed and placed in boxes for personal belongings. The list of permitted for storage in the barracks items will be in the folder that you'll get along with the uniform. If things not permitted would be found the whole platoon will be punished. Why are you silent? Did you understand the order, recruits?"  
"Yes," the recruits replied and the twisted mouth of Sergeant Young twisted even more.  
"A positive answer to my question is considered to be "Yes, ma'am" and the negative - "No, ma'am" and nothing else. Having received an order, you must immediately answer "Aye-aye, ma'am". Got that?"  
"Yes, ma'am!" The recruits chorused, taking their phone cards.

"You may only call your father or mother. Time limit is half a minute. Tell them you're ok, that you are in the reception room of the conscription depot and that the name of your Drill Sergeant is Emily Young." Sergeant Young ordered. "Stand in a queue. When your turn comes, name yourself and announce who are you going to call, either father or mother of the recruit.  
"Ma'am," Bree Tanner spoke up timidly.  
"Private Tanner, remain silent, until you're ordered to open your mouth." Sergeant Young angrily besieged her.  
"Aye-aye, ma'am!" Bree replied.  
"What's the matter, Private Tanner?" Sergeant Young asked irritably.

"Ma'am, I have no parents, only a grandmother. Can I call her?" Bree said softly.  
"Open your mouth and don't squeak like a mouse, Private Tanner. Is grandma your official guardian, Private Tanner?" Sergeant Young inquired.  
"Yes, ma'am. She gave permission to sign my contract." Bree confirmed.  
"You're allowed to make a call to grandma, Private Tanner." Sergeant Young said and took out the list at the phone box.  
Zafrina was the first in the line to machine and said at once.  
"Private Zafrina Noboa. I refuse of the right to call. I have no relatives in the U.S."

"Pass the card to the next recruit, private Noboa," Sergeant Young said. "Next."  
Bella was the next. Clenching the card in her hand, she stepped forward and said.  
"Private Isabella Swan. Call to the father of the recruit."  
Going up to the telephone, she dialed her home number. Judging by the time, Charlie has been already watching his favorite Friday baseball game at full volume with a beer and a bowl of fried chicken wings on his knees. Indeed, when he picked up the phone the noise of the crowded stands could be distinctly heard in the background.  
"Dad, it's Bella..." She said, but Charlie interrupted her immediately.  
"Bella, where's your mother? She went after you to the recruit station. When I called her she said she was in police and that she was busy. And now she hasn't been answering the phone for five hours!  
"Dad, I have little time," Bella exclaimed, for she didn't want to spend a single minute of the conversation with her father, listening to his grumbling about Renee's carelessness. "I'm in the recruit depot Parris Island. I'm all right. I signed the contract for five years and will now take a twelve-week basic course. My Drill Sergeant's name is Emily Young."

"Bella..." Charlie's voice sounded so hoarse as if he suddenly fell ill with laryngitis. "I thought you were just trying to scare us..."  
"You never took me seriously." Bella said with annoyance.  
"Private Swan, time's out." Sergeant Young told her.  
"Everything will be fine, Dad. I'll call as soon as I can." Bella said quickly and pulled the card out.  
Hanging up, she let excited Bree pass and stepped aside to Zafrina.  
"Where are you from?" Bella asked, remembering Zafrina's words about having no relatives in the U.S. and Victoria's gibes about her green card.  
"Ecuador." Zafrina said. "Guayaquil. Have you ever heard about it?"  
"No," Bella shook her head. She weakly imagined the geography of South America.  
"It's the second largest city after the capital." Zafrina said. "You don't know shit, except for your states, Yankees." She smiled. "Just forget it. I wonder who our red-haired witch will call?"  
Zafrina and Bella looked at Victoria, who was next in the line after Bree.  
"Private Victoria Reno!" Victoria shouted loudly when Bree came back. I refuse of the right to call." Thrusting her card to another recruit, she stepped aside.  
When all recruits called their parents, Sergeant Young ordered them to line up in a row and said.  
"Now you'll get the uniform, the Statute and other required documents. Then you'll get vaccinated against any infectious shit. After that you'll go stuff your stomachs in the dining hall. Privates! Take your belongings and follow me!  
"Aye-aye, ma'am!" The chorus of hungry recruits happily roared in answer.  
***

"Judging by your sour faces, you expected me to put you to sleep with mommy's kiss on the forehead after the dinner." Sergeant Young flew down like a hawk in front of the line of tired girls. "However, recruits, I'm not your mother! And you won't go to sleep! You'll test your physique. Each of you will have to do three pull-ups on the bar, twenty sit-ups and run a mile in no more than 12 minutes. According to the results of this test you will be taken either in the normal barracks or the platoon for wimps, where you'll be grilled until you tear your asses!"  
Bella straightened her brand new uniform and swallowed hard, imagining how she'll tear her ass. Physical training has never been her forte. After the words of Sergeant Young, Bella shivered as if before the final exam.  
She stood third in the ranks after Victoria, who always tried to get through the first and Zafrina.  
"Private Reno! Stand out, go to the bar and get ready!" Sergeant Young ordered.  
Victoria walked to the bar with a perfectly straight posture and took hold of the crossbar.  
Sergeant Young gave the go-ahead, and Victoria effortlessly pulled herself up, touching the chin to the bar. After repeating this exercise twice, she gracefully jumped down.  
"Next! Private Noboa!" Sergeant Young shouted.  
Zafrina, as well as Victoria, pulled herself up on the bar like a robot. Bella saw the girl's shoulders and neck strain and felt an unpleasant spun of an apprehension in her stomach.  
"Private Swan!" Two-face, as they named their Drill upon Bree's apt definition, fetched her.  
Bella went to the horizontal bar doomed, already knowing that she is going to blow it.  
Grasping the bar, she tore herself up, but only for a split second. Her fingers, hands and arm muscles were pierced with such a sharp pain that Bella immediately jumped back on the ground.  
"The first candidate for the kindergarten is identified. Private Swan goes to fetch a diaper." Sergeant Young sarcastically commented. "Next!"  
***

Due to the results of the test Bella felt herself being the worst recruit in the world. Even babe Bree managed to cover the distance of one mile in less than 12 minutes, while Bella dragged in on her last breath on the 18th minute. However, Bella still managed to perform fifteen of twenty squats. But by the looks of Sergeant Young, whose normal half of the face even looked threatening, it was not enough.  
"Privates, whose names I call out now, stand out." She said, and called out one after the other eight names. "Privates Tanner and Swan as well," she finished, and Brie and Bella hopelessly made a step forward.  
"You showed the worst results in the test. Your training is not just bad, it sucks. Even zombies run faster than you." Sergeant Young said. "According to the rules you have to be sent to a special squad with the same weaklings as you. But a new approach of educating the laggards will be tested on you. We believe that if you will be trained with the same losers as you before your eyes, you won't know an example of how to be a normal private. So you'll stay in the usual platoon on probation and learn from your comrades. And if after three weeks I don't see that you carry along as if there is a jet engine in your ass, the Drills from the Special Platoon will take care of you. There you'll feel sorry you slept in school physical education classes!"  
"Aye-aye, ma'am!" Frustrated privates responded.

Ashamed, Bella, Bree and others came back in the line, and Sergeant Yang ordered.

"Take your belongings. Now you'll be settled in the barracks. And quit groaning, like a crowd of old women! This is the best time of your life. Enjoy!"  
***

"Was it her graceful way of mocking us, when Two-face spoke about enjoying?" Bella chuckled, putting things in the locker near the bed.

"I like it here." Zafrina sprawled on the top bunk bed. "I love order."

Suddenly the door swung, hit the wall and Sergeant Young with two other female instructors flew into the barracks. With a look, as if instead of recruits there were insurgents from "Al-Qaeda", they whirled between the rows scattering things in different directions.

When Sergeant Young was got to Victoria's bed, she grabbed her trunk and shook all the contents on the bed.  
"You won't need contraceptives here!" She said pulling out of Victoria's belongings a pink box. "You will fuck after the initiation. That's applied to everyone!" She growled. "If I see or hear that recruits made a brothel out of barracks, you'll get in the guardhouse and farewell , the salary!"

"Aye-aye, ma'am!" Victoria shouted, her chin up.

Bella noticed that her shoe lies near some paper, and raised it. It was a photograph in which she was surprised to see Victoria in a white linen dress next to a tall, handsome man in the marine uniform. Victoria smiled happily and gently squeezed his hand in hers. Turning the picture, Bella read "Semper Fi. Always Faithful. To you. Yours, James".

"Give me that back, Swan!" Victoria jumped at her like a tiger and snatched the photo out. "And don't you dare touch my stuff again. Ever."

"It accidentally fell near..." Bella said slightly bewildered. It was just too big contrast between the girl in love on the photo and a furious predator that nearly broke Bella's fingers plucking away the photo.

"Private Swan!" Sergeant Young's cry pulled her out from the thoughts. "What is this shit?"

Bella looked at Drill and saw a chocolate bar in a bright wrapper in her hands.

"I found it in your things." Sergeant Young said, her eyes glaring. "What's written in the list about the chocolate?"

"That it is forbidden to bring it into the barracks, ma'am." Bella replied, cursing herself for not having eaten the damn bar on the way to the base.

"I don't here you! Exert your vocal cords, Private Swan!" Sergeant Young yelled into her face.

"Chocolate's forbidden to bring into the barracks, ma'am!" Bella cried, stretched before the Two-face at attention.  
"Exactly. And what happens when the prohibited items are detected in the barracks?" Sergeant Young came into Bella's face. Bella immediately wanted to pull away, but she knew she'd better not move.

"I... I don't remember, ma'am," Bella got baffled, trying not to look at her sloping mouth and riddled with scars cheek.

"For violation of regulations by one recruit entire platoon will be punished." Sergeant Young went into the corridor between the bunks and handed a bar to puzzled Bella. "Now Private Swan will eat her chocolate contraband, and the rest will do the push-ups until Private Swan finishes eating."

Bella looked at her in hope that the Drill is joking, but Sergeant Young snapped.

"Swan, do you not only run, but also hear like an old grandmother? Buy yourself a hearing aid or read my lips! I don't repeat my orders!"

"Yes, ma'am," Bella muttered and opened a wrapper.

On the Drill order the other girls fell to the floor and began to do push-ups between the rows. Seeing the looks full of anger thrown at her by other recruits, Bella shoved at once half of the bar in her mouth and choked. Overly sweet sticky bar made a lump rise in her throat and Bella start coughing painfully almost to vomiting. But the sergeant sharply and forcefully kicked her back so that the bar suddenly slipped into her stomach, and Bella almost sprawled on the floor.

"Swan, eat, and don't gobble!" Sergeant Young grinned. "As for the rest, keep doing the push-ups! She turned to the other recruits. "Remember, one Marines' fault is the fault of the whole platoon. Oh, yeah... Welcome to the Marines!"

**A/N**: I' m wondering how did you like Bella's first day at the depot))). Review, please.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N**: Thanks for your reviews! As for Renee, you'll see a bit more of her in the future. But really, though a nuisance, she's just a harmless airhead.

This chapter has a song to it - US Marines - I got a girl in Mississippi Town. Enjoy!)

"For the time of completion of the training each of you will receive a comrade, who'll always be by your side. The one, that'll drag your ammunition along with yourself, if you are wounded according to the legend and can't go on." Sergeant Young said after Bella finished her bar and the rest caught their breath. "Comrades are those whose beds are arranged one above the other. And from this moment these two recruits are a team. Marines should always help each other, cover each other in battle and never abandon a comrade."  
Bella looked anxiously at her neighbor on the top Zafrina, and the last mouthed to her, "We'll break through." Bella smiled and saw how unhappy Victoria glanced at Bree and loudly called out to Sergeant Young.  
"Ma'am, allow me to address!"

"Go ahead, Private Reno," Two-face turned to her in displeasure. She didn't like it when recruits opened their mouths during her briefing.  
"Ma'am, let me change the comrade. Private Tanner is much weaker than me. When I chose the bed, I didn't know that I would be in a pair with her." Victoria pattered.  
Sergeant Young approached Victoria and forcefully shoved her fist into the wall next to her head. Reno didn't even flinch, and Two-face hissed in her face.  
"There is no Private Tanner or Private Reno. There is a platoon. And there's a commander. Platoon was ordered - platoon fulfills the order. Other is not a given, Private Reno."  
"Aye-aye, ma'am!" Victoria shouted loudly, blankly staring at the wall.  
"Lights out in half an hour!" Sergeant Young said. "Take all you need for the shower and line up!"

Everyone began to pull out washcloths and soap, pants and shirts, that they got at the reception, and Bella barely caught it, when Victoria, leaning towards Bree, said through her clenched teeth.  
"If I won't become the best because of you, Tanner, you'll regret it. I promise you."

"In my opinion, this song is from the "Full Metal Jacket"." Bella said, reading the printed words from the piece for the fortieth time already.

"In my opinion, our Drill doesn't give a damn where this song is from." Zafrina chuckled. "If we don't learn it, we'll be punished anally with M16 barrel."  
"The line "if I die in the combat zone, box me up and ship me home, pin my medals upon my chest, tell my mom I've done my best" is particularly inspiring." Bree said thoughtfully, looking around fearfully for Victoria.

"Baby, I don't understand what the hell did you forget here at all?" Zafrina looked at her with mother's sympathy. As Bella learned, Zafrina was 26 years old, and because of the nine-year age difference she perceived Bree as an inexperienced child. "The longer I work for Uncle Sam, the closer my citizenship is. You, though, have not even kissed, probably, and are getting into such a slavery."  
"I've kissed. And not only that." Bree sighed. "I have a daughter. She's year and a half."  
"Really?" Bella looked at her in amazement. This girl looked like a child, but she was already a mother!

"Yes. I gave birth in fifteen," Bree said. "I was brought up by only grandmother. We have a very poor family. My daughter was taken to the orphanage. I want to bring her up myself, but for them to give her back to me, I need a good job and insurance. Why did you go into the Marines, Bella?"  
Bella looked at Zafrina and Bree and thought that her reason to be here for these girls will sound almost as a mockery.  
But she had not to answer the tricky question, because Sergeant Young and two other Drills were approaching their ranks on the parade ground.

Having ordered them to line up, she as always yelled at the recruits for the worthless postures, stupid grins, greetings not loud enough and the crumpled form. After blowing down the steam, she got down to business.  
"I do hope your platoon learned all the drill songs for running. Because if instead of singing Drills will hear you gag, bellow or death rattle, you'll be running until your legs fall off!"

"Aye-aye, ma'am!" Recruits shouted at the top of their voices.  
"Platoon! Right turn! At the double!" Two-face ordered, and the second Drill, demonstrating how fast it is necessary to run, ran ahead of the platoon, and straining the vocal cords, shouted, "I love working for Uncle Sam! "  
"I love working for Uncle Sam!" Chorus of recruits responded.

Bella ran with everyone shouting lines of the old army song and then felt the stabbing pain in her side, unaccustomed. But the platoon only increased in speed.

"I don't want a teenage queen! I just want my M14!" Bella screamed and clutched a hand to her side. "If I die in the combat zone! Box me up and ship me home!" Bella felt she could no longer run as fast as the rest of the recruits, and realized that now Two-face will see it and will end her.

Noticing that Bella started slowing down, Zafrina, continuing to shout slogans, took her by the arm and dragged behind, taking over most of her weight.  
"United States Marine Corps!" Recruits shouted, running circles on the parade ground, "I love the Marines!"  
Suddenly they were joined by a chorus of male voices, shouting enthusiastically completely different song. Turning her head, Bella saw guys running on the side, with a proud Emmett McCarthy racing in the lead of his platoon and shouting.

"I got a girl in Mississippi town! She said that serving in the Marine Corps is very simple! I will not go back to Mississippi! The first battalion! Best battalion! Oh- yee- ah! Keep up, guys!"  
"Your friend seems happy." Zafrina grinned.  
Bella smiled and replied, "Yes. This guy was born a Marine."  
***

"Tanner, pull yourself up! Move your arms! Pull up that ass!" Two-face was screaming at Bree, who couldn't climb the rope. "Private Reno, stand out. Private Tanner, Private Reno will be doing push-ups until your ass gets on the top!"  
Bree looked in horror at Victoria, who gave her a look of hatred before falling to the ground.

The girl struggled to cling to the rope, rubbing her hands to the bloody calluses and clenching teeth, and started crept up. With tears in her eyes, she reached the crossbar, and immediately let go, collapsing in a puddle under the rope.  
"Private Tanner, get up and fall in!" Sergeant Young ordered. "Private Reno, stop. Next. Private Swan!"  
Tear-stained and covered with mud Bree got back in line, and Bella went on padded feet to the rope. She remembered how she fell from the rope in high school and broke her arm, and then came up with all kinds of reasons, so to never climb it up again.  
But now she had no choice.  
Clutching the rope, she slowly climbed up. Slippery after rain, the rope strove to break free from her hands. As if alive, it squirmed and tried to throw Bella down like a bull at rodeo.  
"I love working for Uncle Sam!" Bella muttered under her breath in hope that the chants will boost her up. "My Corps! Our Corps!"  
"Fuck, Swan! Did you stuck on this fucking rope?" Two-face shouted indignantly. "Private Noboa, stand out! Swan, until you won't climb up the rope, your comrade will be doing push-ups!"

Bella gritted her teeth. Zafrina shouldn't have been responsible for her hatred of physical education in school.  
"Clasp the rope with your legs! Work your ass!" Sergeant Young shouted from below.  
Bella was pulling herself up with all her might, but almost didn't budge.  
"Swan! When bearded savages aim at your ass, will you still hang like a sack of shit?" Sergeant Young got completely enraged. "Get off the rope! Three laps at the double!"  
Bella fell into a puddle and, barely getting up on her feet, ran on the parade ground, smearing mud and tears on her cheeks.  
***

Twenty minutes before the lights out Bella went to bathroom and heard the voice of the evil Victoria. "Today, Tanner, because you fell five times of the rope, I had to do push-ups. I do everything better than anyone, and you're making me a joke in fron of the entire platoon and the Drill. Did I warn you that you will regret it?"  
"Yes," Bree said quietly. "But I try my best."  
"I don't give a damn about your efforts." Victoria said. "I'm here to be the best. And you disturb me, Tanner. Now I want you to apologize to me."  
"I have already apologized for this morning." Bree answered in surprise.  
"I want a real remorse. Get on your knees, Tanner. And if you won't, Heidi will help you."

Heidi? This short, slender, but very strong and stubborn girl almost immediately became friends with Victoria and went everywhere on her heels, like an assistant after a supervillain in comics.  
Bella looked into the space of the cabins. Heidi kept Bree by her hair and pushed her in the back, so that she knelt before grinning Victoria.  
It was so similar to what Bella and Angela had to endure from Jessica and her friends at school and she was so very sorry for poor Bree, who got such a "comrade".  
In hope that seeing her, Victoria'll stop her bullying, Bella went out.  
"Swan, get out of here, unless you want to stand next to Tanner!" Victoria wasn't bothered.  
"Victoria, you shouldn't treat Bree like that. She isn't trying to hurt you," Bella exclaimed.

"But she harms me nonetheless." Victoria said angrily. "You have no place in the Marines. The strong ones are needed here, and you are the weakest link. You'll climb under the APC in the first battle and will be wailing in fear. The best die rescuing the ones like you. So leave if you have any conscience. Come on, Heidi."  
Heidi and Victoria headed out of the closet and met Zafrina in the door.  
"Swan, where have you gone? Young appeared again to eviscerate our things and found a candy on your bunk." Zafrina said.  
"But I do not have any candy!" Bella cried, and realizing what it means, said, "They won't rest until we leave...  
"Were it those two bitches that I met?" Zafrina chuckled. If they harass you again, call me. It's time someone thinned out the red jungle on that brazen head."  
Bella, Bree and Zafrina went to the barracks and Bella said softly.  
"Zaf, you had to do push-ups because of me today. And you dragged me during the jog. Are you not angry at all?"  
"No," Zafrina said. "The more I train, the stronger I become. But you ought to push yourself more. I won't be always around."

Next morning sleepy and inhibited recruits stood on the parade ground in front of Sergeant Young again, who despite the early hour was cheerful, fresh and as always angry.  
"Zafrina Noboa becomes a platoon leader for the entire recruit training. Private Noboa, stand out in front of the ranks!" Two-face ordered, and Bella saw Victoria gazing at Zafrina enviously.  
"Right turn! At the double!" Zafrina ordered.

Singing traditional Marines' chants again, they ran in a circle. At one of the turns heavy army boots suddenly struck Bella in the right leg right below the knee, and she felt such a hell of excruciating pain that fell heavily on the ground under the feet of the rest of the recruits.  
"Stop!" The second Drill Carmen Rodriguez screamed.  
Within a few seconds Sergeant Young came to Bella, who couldn't even breathe from the pain.

"Private Swan, get up, immediately!" She cried.  
"I... I can't, ma'am" Tears gushed from Bella's eyes.  
"What's the matter? Why are you crying as if your leg was blown off?" Sergeant Young looked at her indignantly. "Come on, Swan. Stop dallying."  
Bella tried to stand with the help of other recruits, but she could only rely on one leg cause her knee as if exploded from the inside again, and Bella screamed in pain.  
"Fuck, how can you crash like that for no reason?" Two-face exclaimed and leaned toward Bella. "Swan, did someone push you?"  
Bella didn't know whose boots hit her, though she guessed that it could be Heidi, who ran few steps behind her. But she didn't care who did it and why.  
"I want to go home." Bella said through her tears, trying in vain to relieve the pain in the knee with her hands.  
"Home?" Two-face looked at her with irritation and almost disdain. "Rejection of the final test, Private Swan, calls for the Tribunal. So now you won't go home, but to the physicians. Private Noboa, help Swan to stand and drag her into the building over there." She showed the low gray building nearby. "Rodriguez, keep training them!"  
***

Bella, trying unsuccessfully to escape the pain, looked at the sign on the door in front of which she was sitting on the couch, waiting for help. It said "Colonel of medical service Carlisle Cullen."  
Sergeant Young was off somewhere with Zafrina, and Bella was left alone, completely out of sorts.  
She was all alone. Away from home. Victoria and her sidekick Heidi, who the whole platoon was afraid of, hated her. She hasn't managed. And her head felt like hell .  
What if she had a fracture?  
Why, for the love of God, did she enroll into Marines? Why didn't she go to that college in Phoenix, when Phil almost arranged it?  
What was she thinking?  
Apparently, Victoria was right, and Bella Swan has nothing to do in the Marines, except sorting papers at the headquarters.

The office door opened a little and Bella heard a pleasant male voice.

"Will she allow you to see Carly before your leaving?"  
"I don't know. That bitch doesn't answer my calls." Another male voice answered, younger and highly irritated.  
"Slow down, Edward. You married her yourself in a month after you met. I and your mother told you you were hurrying too much."  
"Yeah, yeah. You were right as usual. But what does it matter now? I can't go to Afghanistan right now. If I leave, she'll take Carly away from the country."  
"You have no choice, Edward. You know it. Do you know where I was when my and Esme's first child died in a childbirth?"  
"Yes. In Vietnam."  
"I couldn't support her in any way at that moment. Her mother still hasn't forgiven me for that. And when you were born, I was in Grenada. I saw you for the first time when you were six months already. When Carly gets older, she'll be able to understand you."  
"That is if I ever see her again. Okay. I must go. I'll let you know when and where they'll send me." The young voice said wearily, and the office door swung open.

**A/N**: Bella should have known that it wouldn't be that easy to become a Marine. By the way, have the end of the chapter got you interested? :D


	7. Chapter 7

Seeing a man coming out of the office, Bella froze in surprise.  
It was him. The same young officer with extraordinary eyes, whose portrait was the first thing she saw in Parris Island. Only now, his green eyes with a golden crown around the pupil looked dull and tired, there was stubble on the cheeks, the same Charlie had when he was too lazy to shave.  
Bella even stopped crying from surprise and went out of her stupor only when Lieutenant Cullen inquired a handsome middle-aged man in a white robe, standing beside him.  
"Since when are all local girls staring at me like at a pop star?"  
"Since your portrait was hung in the reception hall." Colonel Cullen smiled and looked at Bella. "Private... Swan, right?" He looked at her name on the uniform. "Did you come here on a business?"

Bella got confused, and Lieutenant Cullen said with an irony.  
"Apparently, Private Swan has just participated in a difficult battle, lost all her comrades and got seriously injured, according to the state of her uniform, her hysterical sobs and the fact that she is unable to welcome a senior officer."  
Bella's cheeks immediately blushed, and she jumped to her feet to be rehabilitated, but her right knee was pierced with such acute pain that Bella nearly fell and slid back on the couch.  
At this point, Sergeant Young returned and seeing the Cullens greeted them in accordance with the statute, and then turned to Bella and exclaimed.  
"Swan, wipe off the snot! You just have a sprained foot, it's not like you stepped on the mine!"  
"What have you got there, Sergeant Young?" Colonel Cullen asked.  
"Private Swan fell while jogging and now she presents herself as a wounded hero." Two-face said.

"I do offer to award Private Swan with the Purple Heart (1)." Lieutenant Cullen grinned, rubbing his bearded chin.  
Bella desperately tried to keep from sniffing, but her unfortunate chronic rhinitis broke out with the tears so that Bella's nose suddenly made a sound very similar to the horse's snoring. She immediately wanted to sink into the ground, as Lieutenant Cullen said.  
"I don't worry about the future of the Marine Corps. We grow a worthy replacement, DI (2).  
Sergeant Young gritted her teeth, and Colonel Cullen said.  
"I let the personnel go, Sergeant, so I'll examine Private Swan myself. Wait here."  
"Yes, sir." Two-face said and beckoned Zafrina to her. "Noboa, lead Private Swan the way Colonel Cullen shows.  
***

"Let's see what happened to your leg, Private Swan." Colonel Cullen said, helping Bella to remove her pants.  
His eyes with the same unusual iris, as his son's, were filled with irony, too. But they had no mockery or contempt for her weakness, so Bella calmed down a bit.  
"How did you fall? On your own? Or were you hit by someone?" Colonel asked.  
"On my own." Bella lied. She didn't want to get involved in taking heads off and look for the guilty one. Especially considering the fact that neither Heidi nor Victoria would admit their guilt and she had no evidence other than her own words.  
"I'm not asking that to send someone to the guardhouse, even if they should be, but rather to establish the mechanism of the injury." Colonel Cullen said.  
Bella hesitated, but still said, "It was a punch, sir. Punch in the rear just under the knee.  
"Clear," the colonel said. "Nothing has changed obviously since I had taken the training here."

He gently touched Bella's already heavily swollen knee, which twitched at his every touch.  
"Easy, Private Swan. There is no threat of amputation in your case." Colonel smiled. "I'll be right back. Don't try to get up."  
Bella put her head down on the pillow and sighed. She couldn't forget the impish look of beautiful green eyes of Lieutenant Cullen. Bella Swan has shown him herself as an idiot. Loser. What a looser she really is.

"You have amazing recruits, DI." Bella suddenly heard the voice of Lieutenant Cullen. "What the hell makes them go into Marines?"  
Not knowing where the sound of the voice was coming from, Bella whirled her head and saw the ventilation lattice under the ceiling. Apparently, due to some irregularities in the construction Bella could hear everything said in the next room from her bunk.  
"She's only been here for few days, sir," Sergeant Young said. "She didn't have time to adapt."  
Bella froze in amazement. Was Two-face defending her?

"Adapt? To what? To the fact that she can sprain ankle while jogging?" Cullen sneered. "If you go into Marines, you must be willing to endure the pain. I bet this recruit won't come up to the final test."  
"Oh, you can bet…" Two-face hemmed. "Let's bet then."  
"You're on, Sergeant." Cullen picked up the idea . "I'm betting a hundred bucks that recruit Swan will leave, with her tail between the legs. After seven years in the Marines, I can assess if a man can be a Marine or not. This girl is created to be a secretary."  
"I'm betting you a thousand bucks, I'll make a Marine out of her." Sergeant Young said firmly.  
"A thousand bucks? Won't you be sorry to lose that much because of some girl?"  
"I don't feel sorry. For my twenty shrapnel I got a lot, and Uncle Sam didn't spare me from money here as well." Two-face replied. "I do believe that people can do anything. They just need to have the right stimulus."  
"And here I thought the Drills could only swear. It's almost a campaign speech, Sergeant." Cullen laughed. "Well then, I also don't regret a thousand bucks for the sake of the truth. How long is it before the initiation?"  
"Eleven weeks, sir." Two-face said.  
"Damn. At this time I'll probably be feeding malarial mosquitoes near Kabul." Lieutenant said angrily.

"In Bagram(3)?"  
"At first yes, and then we'll see. But I'll keep an eye on the progress of this girl." Cullen said with an obvious sarcasm. "Save the money, Sergeant. Six months later, I'll come after them.

Bella listened to their conversation and suddenly she felt fury instead of despair. Fury at herself for the whining and the weakness. And at Lieutenant Cullen for the fact that in just a minute, he had ranked her as a mindless office plankton.  
What does he know about her at all?  
If she really was such an amoeba as he thought about her, she wouldn't have come up with a plan to rescue Renee from the hands of that crazy Riley Biers. All these experienced cool military men couldn't even think of anything. But Bella could. And at that moment she didn't feel worthless.  
Arrogance and mocking tone of Lieutenant Cullen got Bella so angry that she sat on the couch, her fists clenched, and said.  
"You won't get thousand bucks out of this, Lieutenant Cullen! No way!"  
***

"Are you talking to yourself, Private Swan? Colonel Cullen smiled, entering.  
"No, sir. I was simply cheering myself with chants." Bella replied in a voice that trembled with resentment.  
"I see you aren't dying anymore, Private Swan." The doctor smiled. "That's good, because you'll stay here at least for the day. Besides, you'll have to endure a rather unpleasant procedure."  
"What?" Bella asked with concern. "A surgery?"  
"No. We aren't talking about surgery for now. We must remove the blood from the cavity of the joint first, so that I could diagnose." Colonel Cullen replied.  
"Blood?" Bella felt shivers run down her spine. "Do I have a fracture?"  
"As I said, because of the hemarthrosis (4), it's very difficult to diagnose right now. But I don't think it's a fracture. It's more like a partial tear of the ligaments," Colonel Cullen said. "In any case, I'll tell your Drill that you are freed from physical exertion at least for a couple of weeks."  
Bella realized that it greatly increased the chances of Lieutenant Cullen winning the bet, and imagining Two-face's fury at her for this ridiculous injury, she shivered again.  
But all her suggestions on this subject didn't stand even close to the reality. Because as soon as Colonel Cullen have told Sergeant Young that Bella can not engage in physical training for a few weeks, Two-face began to shout so much that the scars on her face turned purple.  
"It's necessary to watch your step, Swan!" She cried. "How are you going to catch up with the rest of the platoon? Even those losers from the special platoon will be better prepared than you!"  
"I will attend all the lectures, ma'am!" Bella exclaimed.

"Did you have a permission to open your mouth, Private Swan?" Sgt. Young screamed in her face.  
"No, ma'am." Bella dropped her eyes.

"Look in the front when your commander is talking!" Drill Instructor demanded. "Lectures? What are you, a fucking college girl? Will you read the lectures to Taliban or Iraq insurgents as well? Or did you go into Marines to shake your tits, sit at the table in a nice uniform and fuck guys with hefty asses while the others fight? Answer me, Private Swan, why did you sign up into the Corpus?"  
Bella didn't want to answer this question more than anything. But it was quite impossible to ignore the orders of Sergeant, and Bell said, "To serve my country, ma'am."  
"Rubbish!" Sergeant Young grimaced. "I don't want to hear the booklet shit. I know it by heart!"  
"I always was a mediocrity. I was bullied in school. And now my parents are divorcing and splitting me like a property." Bella told the truth. "Nobody cares for me. I'm sick of it, ma'am."

"Tired of feeling worthless?" Sergeant chuckled.  
"Yes, ma'am." Bella confirmed. "My parents don't care about what I want."  
"And what do you want?" Two-face asked. "Stop being a tool? If you continue to behave like this, you'll stay the same. Uniform doesn't change a personality. You were a gray mouse, and now you've become a spotty one, but you've still remained a mouse!"  
"But I'm trying, ma'am!" Bella objected, badly touched by Drill's words.  
"No, Swan you are not trying. Because you don't care about the Marines, your comrades or the country!" Sergeant Young angrily spat in her face. "You only think about your own ass, and if nobody licks it, you're feeling hurt. While you don't care about anyone, no one cares about you. I've no reason to respect you, as well as other recruits. Prove that you can cover your comrade, overcome fear and pain and defeat the enemy! And you'll get out of this shit you flounder in right now."  
Bella felt the heat flow to her face. It was the most unpleasant thing she'd ever heard. But although she was hurt and it pained to hear it, she angrily understood that Sergeant Young was right.

"You'll work off this two weeks for me completely, Swan!" Two-face said meanwhile. "While the rest will watch TV and write letters, you'll be doing push-ups, running, squatting and crawling. No one will take pity on you. Get used to it."  
"Aye-aye, ma'am!" Bella cried, and Sergeant Young left the room.  
Bella lay on the couch and buried her face in a pillow until she saw the nurse coming to her bed with a syringe and some instruments in her hands.  
"Colonel Cullen said that you need to have the blood removed from the cavity of the knee." The girl said. The nurse was very small and thin, with short, slightly tousled dark hair. "I'm Captain Alice Brandon, the head nurse. But you can call me simply Alice. What's your name?"  
"Bella." Bella replied. Alice seemed to be very cute.  
"Bella, this is going to be a little unpleasant, but you'll have to bear it." Alice said, preparing Bella's knee for the procedure. "If it'll get too painful, tell me."  
"Okay," Bella nodded, gathered her courage.  
"Well," Alice smiled and brought the needle to Bella's knee. "Then let's proceed."  
***

Alice talked to Bella all the while doing her job. Apparently, she did it to distract the patient from discomfort, and was successful in it.  
It seemed that Alice knew everything about everyone who served in Parris Island, and gladly shared her knowledge.  
"Who is your Senior Drill Instructor?" Alice asked.  
"Sergeant Emily Young." Bella replied.  
"Lucky you." Alice suddenly said. "She's good. She'll tear to pieces anyone for her recruits and won't look at the military rank."  
Bella was surprised with such a characteristic and Alice noticing it, laughed.  
"Of course, she yells at the top of her lungs. But all the Drills yell here. They prepare you to the action. Sergeant Young at first couldn't yell at recruits at all, because she's generally very quiet. But then she realized that the recruits wouldn't understand otherwise, and now she yells like Jimmy Hendrix!"  
Bella remembered that Sergeant Young did really talked to Lieutenant Cullen quietly and composedly, and she immediately let out her curiosity.  
"Alice, do you know Lieutenant Cullen?" Bella asked.  
"The son of the Colonel?" Alice laughed. "Oh, it's a real Shakespearean tragedy! "Othello".  
"What do you mean?" Bella didn't understand.

"Lieutenant Cullen married immediately after Annapolis (5). Colonel tried to dissuade him, but he rebelled. He fell completely in love. Soon his wife became pregnant. And two months after the birth of his daughter, he was sent to Afghanistan." Alice willingly began to tell, not forgetting to perform deftly and almost painlessly manipulations on Bella's knee. "After a few months his convoy was attacked by the Talibans. A pile of wounded men, five killed as a result. Cullen was seriously injured, but he fought back to the end. And when the cartridges run out, he began fighting Talibans with his bare hands. In short, he displayed heroism. He was awarded with the "Navy Cross" for it. But that's not the point. As soon as he came back he went straight home. He decided to make his wife a surprise. Coming into the house with flowers, he saw his wife in their bed with some other guy. Well, after that he went ballistic. He almost drowned that guy in the pool. His wife called the police. And then she took him to court. Supposedly because he beat her and threatened to kill. He had never touched her, however. The court divorced them and forbade him to approach her . Since then she doesn't let him see his daughter. In the year and a half he only got to see Carly for about twenty times. Now the bitch has married some Italian businessman and leaves the country with his daughter."  
"Captain Brandon, have you already told Private Swan all the local gossip, or should I come back later?" Colonel Cullen inquired, entering.  
"All done, sir." Alice didn't seem bothered at all as she jumped up from the chair. "I'm finished, Bella. Did it hurt?"  
"Just a little bit." Bella smiled.

"You are free to go, Captain Brandon." the Colonel said.  
"Thank you, sir. Will you come to my party?" Alice's laughter sounded like a bell.  
"Of course. I've already picked up a guitar. I will sing songs about Vietnam." With a serious face Colonel Cullen replied, but his eyes were smiling.  
"Excellent! And we'll have a Twister!" Captain Brandon happily reported. "Good luck, Bella! Get well soon!"  
Captain Brandon ran away, humming and even slightly bouncing, and Colonel Cullen said.  
"We are together on duty today, while the others prepare the party for Captain Brandon. She's leaving tomorrow to Quantico (6) on the Afghan training, and then she'll go to Afghanistan to head the nursing division. Well, Private Swan, it wasn't to scary, right?" He smiled warmly at her.  
"Yes, sir." Bella nodded, and for the first time since arriving in Parris Island she felt that she will be able to settle down here.

_  
1 - "Purple Heart" - U.S. military medal that is awarded to all U.S. military personnel killed or injured in a result of enemy action.  
2 - DI - acronym for the Drill Instructor.  
3 - Bagram - one of the largest military bases of NATO coalition in Afghanistan.  
4 - Hemarthrosis – is a bleeding in the cavity of the joint.  
5 - Annapolis - military academy that trains officers for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps. Located in Annapolis, Maryland, so the Academy is often informally called Annapolis.  
6 - Quantico - base of the U.S. Marine Corps in Virginia.

**A/N**: So, what do you think? How did you like Bella's meetings with Edward, Carlisle and Alice?


	8. Chapter 8

Bella entered the lecture hall, leaning on the crutches. Everyone immediately turned to her with curiosity and Heidi's face instantly blossomed with a smile, which she didn't even try to hide.  
"Sit down." Zafrina pointed at the seat next to her.  
Bella gently sank down into a chair. Colonel Cullen detained her in the medical bay for almost a day and after making sure that Bella got only some ligament tear with a complicated name, but not the fracture, he let her go, prohibiting any serious stress on the leg. However, even with all the desire, Bella couldn't run or jump, she felt helpless and invalid with those idiotic knee-pad and crutches.  
"Bella, you look like a war veteran!" Bree Tanner said merrily, sitting behind them.  
"Shut up!" Sergeant Young called for the silence. "Private Swan, all recruits must be in the audience fifteen minutes prior to the lecture. Entire platoon was here on time, but you came at the same time instructors did. Stand up, Swan!"  
Taking crutches, Bella slowly got up.

"Private Swan, a Marine may not execute the order of the commander only in case he was killed. You look too good for a deadman, though. If you can't go fast, you should come out beforehand. Sit down, Private Swan. One more delay, and the whole platoon will be punished.  
"Yes, ma'am." Bella replied and sat down heavily in her seat. Sergeant Young said.  
"Who of you, devil puppies, know what Amtrack is? Private Tanner!"  
"It is a railroad corporation, ma'am." Bree answered without delay.  
"Of course, Private Tanner, we are studying here the damn train." Sergeant Young twisted her already crooked mouth. "Amtrack is a military amphibious tracked vehicle that is used by assault airborne battalion for landing on land, transfer from amphibious ships to shore during operations in the coastal zone and the subsequent combat support. You can see it on the screen.  
Bella looked at the photo, which appeared on the projector canvas behind Sergeant Young, and saw something eerily huge, looking like a can or a tin box on tracks, with armed Marines with rifles jumping out of it.

"Soon you'll meet this baby closely." Sergeant Young said. "This is Amphibious Assault Vehicle 7A1. AAV-7A1 for short. It entered the service in 1972. It was used during operations in Grenada, the "Desert Storm" in Iraq. The crew consists of four people: the driver, commander, rifleman and a crew member who is settled in the back of the machine. The landing party is located in the aft and consists of twenty-five marines. AAV-7A1 is able to move on land and sea due to two water jets, equipped with turning mechanism. Amunition of Amtrack consists of the M242 Bushmaster automatic cannon and the Mk-19 grenade launcher. Private Reno!" She hissed suddenly, interrupting her extremely difficult for understanding monologue. "Do you have a dictaphone inside your brain?"  
"No, ma'am." Victoria calmly replied.  
"Then why the hell are you not taking notes, bus staring at your fingernails?" Two-face inquired.  
"I know it all already, ma'am." Victoria did not flinch.

"Do you? You think too much of yourself, Private Reno." Sgt. Young grinned. "What is the difference between the usual Amtrack and the commander's Amtrack?"  
"There is no tower in the commander's Amtrack, ma'am, and most of the area is occupied by communication equipment." Victoria replied promptly. The crew consists of three people plus five radio operators, three staff- and two combat commanders.  
Sgt. Young grinned. "How much does the basic version AAV-7A1 weights?"  
"50200 pounds, ma'am." Victoria said, clearly trying to demonstrate Drill her intellect and superiority over other recruits.  
- What is the thickness of the armor?  
- About two inches. - Victoria replied.  
- The speed on land?  
- 40 miles per hour.

- On the sea?  
- 8 miles per hour.  
- Cruising range?

- 300 miles.

Victoria was clearly pleased with herself, because the whole platoon was looking at her with admiration. Bella even caught herself thinking that now Victoria is really worthy of the furor she made.  
"How many grenades does ammunition of Mk-19 grenade launcher have?" Two-face asked a new question, but this time Victoria did not answer.  
"Private Reno, if a recruit declares that she knows everything, she must be ready to take the examination on all questions of the course." Two-face strictly said, with her voice sounding ominously. "How many grenades does the ammunition of Mk-19 grenade launcher have?"  
"One thousand two hundreds, ma'am." Victoria replied not so confidently.  
"Exam's failed, Private Reno! In ammunition of Mk-19 grenade launcher there are eight hundred sixty-four grenades." Sergeant Young said and walked between the rows to Victoria, then said through teeth in her face, "Eight hundred sixty-four grenades! Nobody can know everything, Private Reno. And that's normal. Abnormality is that you think you're fucking Jimmy Neutron and that all others, including your Drill, are the idiots from the cheerleading team! If ordered to take notes, you must take notes, even if you've heard something somewhere. Because it's an order! And because there is always something that is not written in Wikipedia!"  
"Aye-aye, ma'am!" Victoria responded with difficulty.

"To knock the arrogance out of Private Reno, Private Reno will scrub the barracks today. And until a handkerchief, which I'll pass over the floor, will remain snow-white, you will lick the floor clean with your long tongue!" Two-face pierced Victoria with her look.  
"Aye-aye, ma'am!" Victoria shouted, her cheeks reddening.  
"Let's continue." Sergeant Young instantly calmed, having restored her authority in the platoon. "Some Amtracks also come with the sets of elongated charges of demining."

By the end of the lecture Bella could barely held in a conscious state. She started to get sleepy from such an abundance of numbers, terms, unfamiliar acronyms and obscure words. Afraid that Drill will catch her sleeping, Bella rubbed her eyelids, pulled her hair, painted girls in crazy outfits in a notebook, but it was all in vain. Her head drooped, sounds alienated and Bella plunged into sticky nap, until Zafrina shoved her after a while.  
"Swan! Young is calling you!"

Sleep instantly left Bella, and she jumped to her feet as a lightning, dropping crutches with thunder.  
"Private Swan, since there is no use of you right now, you become an administrative assistant of the senior Drill Instructor." Two-face said.  
"Aye-aye, ma'am!" Bella cried out with all her alacrity so that sergeant wouldn't guess about what she was doing the last third of the lecture.  
"Everyone is free. Private Swan, go to the desk. You'll fill out salary statements." Sergeant Young ordered.  
All recruits spilled out of the auditorium in a noisy stream, happy that the inquisition was finally over, as Bella obediently moved to the table.  
Sergeant Young threw a bunch of forms in front of her and showing how to fill them out, she took out her phone and called somewhere.  
"Hey, Paul. This is Sergeant Young. Are there any news from Uley? Are they still in Fallujah (auth.- a city in Iraq) or were they sent somewhere else already? You don't know. Clear. I'm as usual. Fresh meat has arrived. I'm wiping their snot. Okay. Good luck, brother. Call me if anything happens."  
Putting the phone away, she looked at Bella, who buried her head in the statements so that it didn't seem like she overheard Drill's private conversation.

"Private Swan, do you know how to do at least anything?" Two-face asked suddenly.  
"What do you mean, ma'am?" Bella lifted her head.  
"Well, you run fucking badly. Not able to pull yourself up. You do push-ups God knows how, too." Sergeant Young said, her "evil" half turned to Bella as if on purpose. You fall on a straight surface. You are crying because of the foolish injury like a blonde, who broke her nail. You sleep in the lecture. And you probably can't fight as well."  
"Yes, ma'am." Ashamed Bella confirmed.  
"So what can you do at all, Swan, except persuading recruiters and taking tests?" Young repeated her question.  
"Shoot, ma'am. I know how to shoot."  
"Shoot?" Two-face grinned. "With a water-air rifle?"  
"No, ma'am. With a hunting rifle" Bella said. "And with a combat pistol. My father is a police officer, and his best friend was a hunter. I went to hunt with them in the forest."  
"What did you hunt for?"  
"For hares and doers, ma'am." Bella said, remembering how Harry Clearwater taught her to shoot, how Bella, Seth and Leah competed who are the most accurate, shooting in Charlie's favorite cap, hanging on a bough. Charlie then swore for a long time because of the torn to shreds cap, and Renee laughed merrily. That happened two years before Renee ran away from Forks with Phil.  
"Did you shoot?" Two-face asked in the meantime.  
"Of course, I shoot." Bella replied.  
"I ask did you shoot animals."  
Bella hesitated and said. "Yes, ma'am. I shoot… a deer."  
"Did you kill it?"

"I wounded it." Bella said and broke into a cold sweat. Unlike the story with a cap that memory was not joyful.  
She was fourteen. Harry's dogs tracked a deer. Bella was closer to it than the rest. She was a child in love with Seth and really wanted to impress him. And when the deer appeared among the branches, she took aim and fired. Deer fell on its side twitching. Blood gushed from its neck. Charlie didn't go with them that day, and Harry was the first to run to her. Deer continued to suffer in convulsions, not dying. Bella vomited and Harry shoved her and shot the deer.  
She never went hunting with Clearwaters again and told Charlie she preferred to sit in a chair with a book much more than to wade through the bushes and wander through the dirty untrodden glades. She never told her father about the deer.  
"From what distance did you shoot?" Sergeant Young inquired.  
"I do not remember, ma'am." Bella replied, wishing she hadn't remember about the case at all. "I think there were about a hundred feet..."  
"Did you really shoot a deer from a hundred feet distance?" Two-face hemmed. "Leave the statements, Private Swan. Go after me. Let's check, if you lied to me or not."

Sergeant Young led Bella to the training ground behind the barracks and ordered to wait. Five minutes later, Two-face appeared, carrying a rifle on her shoulder and a training imitation of a human torso in her hands. Hanging it up on the hook of the bar, Sergeant Young went to Bella and took the rifle from her shoulder.  
"This is M14." Two-face explained, showing Bella unpretentious in appearance, compared to those they had been shown in a lecture, rifle. "It was widely used during the Vietnam War, and is now considered outdated. But it's good for suckers. Since you can't stand, you'll shoot in the lying position. It's even easier than standing up." Sergeant Young said.  
Quickly but thoroughly showing Bella how to load a rifle, in what position to lie, how to hold the M14, so to not break nose with a kickback, where it's necessary to press the buttstock and how to aim, Sergeant Young shoved her the rifle and walked away.  
Bella took the rifle in her hands. It was much heavier than the one that Harry taught her to shoot with.  
Carefully following Two-face's instructions, Bella gently lowered herself to the ground, put the rifle on a prop, pressed the buttstock to her shoulder fossa and aimed.  
"Fire!" Sergeant Young ordered and Bella fired, twitching even before the shot sounded.  
The bullet had passed far away from the target.  
"Press the buttstock to cheek and don't twitch during the shot. That makes a bullet go to the right. Also don't lean heavily on the buttstock with your cheek, or the bullet goes to the left. Two-face said. "Second attempt."  
Getting ready, Bella took aim again, this time pressing buttstock to her cheek.  
"Fire!" Two-face ordered.  
Bella shot and the target was untouched again. Heck, she can't even do what she used to do very good! Two-face'll punish her for lying, thinking that she made up the story about the deer to enhance her reputation, and now she'll have to wash the barracks along with Victoria.

"Shoot on the exhale. Press your knees to the ground." Sergeant Young admonished her with sharp cries. "Third attempt!"  
Bella pulled herself together. She remembered the malicious grin of Lieutenant Cullen and words of Sergeant Young that it was time to stop being a spotted mouse.  
She has to do it now.  
Bella lay the finger firmly on the trigger.  
Holding her breath, she took aim, burning with her eyes the damn target.  
"Fire!" Sgt. Young gave the order.  
Bella fired, exhaling.  
And... miss!  
"Fuck!" Bella couldn't resist. She warily eyed Two-face and suddenly saw that she was laughing not angrily at all.  
"Private Swan, were you seriously going to show me sniper accuracy now?" Seeing Bella's stretched face, she explained. "I saw all that is needed. You did hold the weapon in your hands. You can shoot and you like it. Your technique is shit, but it's not a problem if you want to learn how to hit the target. You're free to go, Private Swan. You'll fill the statements in the evening after dinner."  
"Yes, ma'am." Bella said, a little confused by her words, returned Two-face the rifle and went to the barracks.  
"Swan!" Sergeant Young called her. "Forget about that deer!"  
Bella turned around and saw Two-face shooting in the target, standing. The bullet pierced the stomach of the dummy.  
Lowering the rifle Young looked at Bella and said, "Here you will learn to shoot people."


	9. Chapter 9

Returning from the training ground and thinking about her experience with M14, Bella pushed the door to the barracks open and with just one step suddenly lost her balance.  
Crutches slipped on the wet floor, and not being able to cope with them, Bella almost sprawled in the hallway, but helpful Bree picked her up in the last moment.  
"Swan," Victoria hissed, standing with a mop in her hands. "I see you normally don't look under your feet. I've just washed the floor here, and you're making it dirty with your crooked legs!"  
Then she threw a mop at Bella with irritation.  
"Clean up after yourself!"  
Bella looked at the floor at the door and didn't see any dirt, but just water spilled everywhere. Apparently, she has slipped on one of those puddles at the entrance.  
"Didn't you hear what I've just said, Swan?" Victoria increased the volume of her voice. "Clean up after yourself!"  
"I was not the one who was ordered to clean the barracks." Bella calmly replied. "Besides, I've wiped my feet before entering."

Victoria opened her mouth to put her in place, but suddenly the door opened and Two-face flew in the barracks as always promptly and slipped on the same puddle as Bella. Miraculously staying on her feet, but hitting her head against the jamb hardly, Sergeant Young yelled.  
"Fuck! Did some dog make the puddles here?"  
Bree giggled into her fist, while Victoria clenched her teeth.  
"Private Reno, why the fuck did you make a deluge here? This is not a deck of torpedo-boat destroyer, Reno!" Two-face shouted with all her might. "If you can't clean the floor with a rag, wipe it with your hair then! You have a lot of it, enough to make entire floor dry. Clean up immediately all this shit!"  
"Yes, ma'am." Victoria said dryly and began to wipe the floor. Sergeant Young turned to Zafrina, who came in immediately after her.  
"Private Noboa, hand out the letters. You have an hour for a leisure time. After that the whole platoon should be in the lecture."  
Sergeant Young left the barracks, rubbing her head and swearing.

Zafrina said with a grin, "Have a bad day, Reno?"  
"Shut up, Noboa, and eat your bananas." Victoria snapped.  
"So, you are a racist as well." Zafrina laughed and pulled out a small white envelope from the stack of the letters she was holding. "By the way, you've got mail, Reno… from the orphanage in New Orleans."

"Give me that now!" Victoria demanded, catching looks of other recruits on herself.  
"Apologize for bananas and you'll get it." Zafrina said and raised her hand up with the letter. She was almost a head taller than Victoria, so the last couldn't take away her letter even jumping.  
"Give me it back!" Victoria hissed as an angry cat.  
"Apologize first." Zafrina didn't give in.  
"Leave it for yourself then." Victoria said with contempt, threw the mop on the floor and ran out of the barracks.  
Bree looked after her anxiously and said, "Looks like she's angry... a lot."

Lying in her bed after lights out, Bella tossed and couldn't fall asleep. Seeing that Zafrina's hanging hand snapped a certain rhythm with fingers, Bella slapped her comrade on the palm. Zafrina immediately leaned over the edge of the bed and asked, "Did something happen?"

"No..." Bella hesitated. Zaf, it's just that... It turns out that Victoria grew up in the orphanage..."  
"Apparently." Zafrina shrugged. "I didn't read the letter. I threw it on her bed. Why do you ask?"  
"Well... That's probably why she's so... evil." Bella said in a whisper.  
"Are you feeling sorry for her or what?" Zafrina grinned. "It doesn't matter why a person become evil. The important thing is that the one does. And Reno's soul is as black as my ass."  
Bella smiled. Zafrina never minced with her words.  
"We don't know what she had to go through there, though." Bella said, remembering the happy picture of Victoria with a nice guy named James that Reno snatched from her during the inspection of belongings.

"Whatever you had to go through, other people are not to blame." Zafrina said. "I lived on the street since twelve years old after my father was arrested because of false denunciation, our house was burned, and my mother died in the fire. I worked on a banana plantation, where I was whipped like a donkey, and forced to suck of the boss. Then I got into the youth gang. In sixteen I was almost raped in the basement by three drunk brutes, but I stabbed them with a knife and fled. And then still a lot of things happened to me. According to your logic, baby, I should hate everyone. But I just want to live as a normal human being, and that there was less crap around." Zafrina grinned. "Victoria only increases the amount of shit in the world, though. Sufferings were sent to Job to test his faith and virtue. Reno should have picked up the Bible long time ago."  
Bella wanted to say something in response, but realized that all her words would sound false and inappropriate, besides Zafrina smiled as if nothing had happened and said.  
"Don't let it go to your head, Swan. Go to sleep. If you don't get enough sleep, you'll snore again at the lecture."  
"Goodnight, Zaf." Bella said softly.

"Goodnight, Bells." Zafrina responded and in a few minutes Bella heard slow and regular sniffing from the top.  
Bella buried her head in a pillow and pondered.  
She realized only now how beautiful her life is and what a trifle her current troubles were compared to what other people have to endure. And if others could get through such a nightmare and not break, couldn't she kick Victoria's ass indeed?  
"Hold on, Victoria..." Bella thought and with this bright idea fell into a deep sleep.

"Get up!" Bella suddenly heard a loud cry of Sergeant Young through her sleep.  
Opening her eyes, she saw flashlights rushing in the dark of the barracks. Everybody started moving. Zafrina jumped of the top and began to put on the uniform in a hurry.  
Still not fully awake, Bella grabbed her pants and only managed to put them on a good leg when a flashlight struck her in the face, and the second Drill Carmen Rodriguez shouted.  
"Line up! In the state that you are in now!"

Platoon of unaware from the sleep recruits lined up in the corridor between the rows of the beds.  
Looking at the other girls, Bella realized that she wasn't the only one caught by surprise with Drill's sudden raid. Bree wore only the uniform jacket, but she hadn't pants on her. Sue from Minnesota managed to wear pants, but remained in sports bra on the top. Heidi was dressed up, but stood barefoot. Zafrina didn't have time to fasten the belt and to collect her hair in the ponytail. Maggie from Kansas had to line up with bare chest because Drill strictly forbade them to touch any things that they didn't have time to put on. The other girls didn't look good either. Victoria was the only one on full alert, staring impassively ahead.

"Barracks were attacked at night by the group of insurgents, who fucking shot the two-thirds of the platoon." Sergeant Young said, appearing in front of them. "The Marines met the enemy with bare boobs and flabby asses. In this state they were gathered to their fathers." After a pause she looked at the girls again and screamed. "At any time of the day or night you must be fucking prepared to fight! Your enemy doesn't care if you're sleeping, eating or sitting on the closet basin with a newspaper! Platoon should be on its feet and not with a bare ass in forty-five seconds after the command! Now the whole platoon will dress and undress until it's done as it should be! Lights out!"  
Girls quickly took off their uniform and climbed in bed.  
"Get up!" Less than a minute later Sergeant Young shouted.  
Recruits jumped out of the bed and began to put on their uniforms.  
"You're not dressing up on a date, ladies!" Sergeant Young hurried them on. When the platoon finally lined up in a straight line, dressed according to the rules, Sergeant Young said irritably.  
"Two minutes, thirty seconds. While you were dressing, the entire base was obliterated along with yourselves. Back to bed!"  
Cursing, Bella went back to bed only to jump out of it again in a minute.  
Groundhog day lasted for about an hour, until finally, tired to death platoon managed to dress up in required forty-five seconds.  
"Now you won't be killed with your ass naked at least." Sergeant Young optimistically said examining lined up before her girls. "Sweet dreams, recruits!" She wished them with oblique smile and headed to the exit.  
Once Young and two other Drills left the barracks, it was swept with a heavy sigh.  
They had only an hour left for the "sweet dream".  
***

"Get up! Alarm!" Bella heard through her sleep and immediately jumped as if undermined.  
But suddenly she realized that her uniform is already put on and heard the joyful laughter of Emmett McCarthy.  
"Sorry, I just couldn't pass that up." He said, patting Bella's shoulder. "You slept so comically with your nose in a plate."  
Bella rubbed her eyes and realized in horror that she actually fell asleep in the dining hall with her head right on the plate, which was fortunately clean.  
"Hey, Emmett," she said, looking at an old acquaintance, who collapsed in front of her on a bench in his favorite bear manner with a wide smile on his face. "How are you doing?"

"Excellent!" Emmett exclaimed. "I was chosen a platoon leader and I made friends with all platoon. We have some great guys. And half of them are baseball players!"  
"And the other half is probably football players." Bella smiled.  
"No, they are the usual guys." Emmett didn't understand the irony. "Why are you so sleepy?"  
"We were raised ten times at night by Drills and forced to dress for speed." Bella replied with a yawn.  
"So did we." Emmett laughed. "Also, Drills go in the barracks at night and check if we sleep or do other sorts of things, eat sweets for example. One night one of the recruits was ja... Well, he was masturbating. Drill yelled in his ear so loudly that the poor man will probably never get it up again!"  
Bella laughed and thought that this guy doesn't seem to be much luckier than her. Most likely he'll hear vulgar jokes at his own expense till the end of the training.  
"Come on," Emmett told her. "Don't you have to be in the lecture, too?"  
Bella took lying next to her crutches and began to rise from the table gently.

"Have you been already shot by the enemies?" Emmett smiled, holding her elbow.  
"I fell while jogging and torn the ligaments." Bella said with a sigh.  
"I did the same during the match once. I tried so hard to beat off the ball, but that asshole of a pitcher sent a curve ball." Emmett burst into memories. "I backed of and then suddenly fell down. It was painful like hell. So, I laid there and thought, "All right, McCarthy, you've played your last match. There is no way you'll be the best batter of the season." But in the end only in three weeks I beat off the ball so hard that they even wrote an article about me in newspaper. So, don't you worry, Izzy. Besides, you look cute with crutches."  
""You're a gentleman, Emmett." Bella laughed, as they went out of the dining room together.  
Noticing a crowd of recruits gathered near the boards, they went there too and saw the poster, reporting that in three weeks there will be held competitions between platoons and individual competitions in sport and military subjects.  
"Cool!" Emmett immediately perked up. "I love competitions!"  
"Yes, I remember." Bella winked at him. "Your team won the state championship five times." She remembered Emmett's emotional speech before the recruiter.  
"Now my team will win the cup of Parris Island!" Emmet said confidently and turned to Bella. "Your platoon will be there as well. What competition will you participate in? Will it be a contest for the smartest recruit?"  
"No, Emmett." Bella smiled at him. "It'll be a contest for the best-aimed one."


	10. Chapter 10

"Are you kidding me?" Emmett made big eyes when he heard her words.  
"No. I'm going to participate in shooting competitions." Bella said.  
"Do you know how to shoot?" Emmett asked looking at her as if she admitted that she arrived from another planet.  
"Yes, I do." Bella nodded. "As I said before, the trigger is pressed with a finger and not..."  
"I remember." Emmett interrupted her with laughter. "I just can't imagine you with a rifle. You are very similar to my sister, and she can't stand guns. When my father and I returned from hunting with a bag, she did everything to distract us so that we went out and she could bury it. Father bellowed like a wounded grizzly then!"  
"Do I look like your sister?" Bella was surprised.  
"Yeah. Very much so. She's very smart and always falls too." Emmett said. "More than that, she was bullied in school because she's so... Well, a real nerd, in general. That was until I got to know that and beat the bullies down. Nerds, they are humans too, just... smart."  
"Emmett, not only you're a gentleman, but also a thinker." Bella smiled, thinking that, perhaps, because of the similarity with his sister, McCarthy takes care of her as well.  
"By the way, I became an uncle." Emmett said happily. "My sister gave birth to a boy. When he grows up, he'll be a baseball player too!"  
"Maybe he'll be a nerd." Bella laughed.  
"He won't. He yells as our coach already and tries to reach for a bat!" Emmett said. "I saw it on Skype!"  
***

After another long and slumberous lecture about technical characteristics of the tank "Abrams" Bella decided to take the card to make a call home, but she was stopped near the phone box by Two-face.  
"Private Swan, are you familiar with webcam settings?" She asked.  
"Yes, ma'am." Bella replied.  
"Then follow me." Sergeant Young ordered and Bella dutifully hobbled along the corridor after Drill.  
"Come in." Two-face said when they entered the barracks, and opened the front door of her cabin.  
Bella had never been in Drill's cabin but heard from Zafrina that its walls have lots of photos from Afghanistan, though there wasn't any photo with DI herself.  
"There is a picture, but no sound." Two-face said, pointing at the laptop on a table. "Sort it out."  
"Yes, ma'am." Bella nodded and sat on a chair in front of the computer.  
A young man in the uniform could be seen on the laptop screen. He was also sitting at the table in a darkened room and silently opened his mouth, trying to show something with gestures at the same time. Bella fumbled wuth the settings, checked the connections but found no problems.  
"I don't know what wrong's, ma'am." She said. "Perhaps, it's easier to make a phone call."  
"I know that it's easier. But he's in Iraq, not in the neighboring state." Two-face angrily muttered.  
Bella immediately realized that it was probably the same Uley, who Sergeant Young asked about yesterday on the phone. Meanwhile, the guy on the screen took a sheet of paper, quickly wrote something on it and brought it to the camera.

After reading the inscription, Bella realized that she saw more than she should.  
In large letters on the sheet was written: "Sergeant Young, will you marry me?"  
Two-face stilled for a moment after reading it and then looked at Bella and said.  
"I should have done everything myself."  
"I won't tell anyone, ma'am." Bella assured her, trying not to smile with all her forces, but Sergeant Young waved and took a sheet, also wrote something on it and brought it to the camera.  
Uley laughed happily and showed off to the side a sign "okay", and then a crowd of strong guys in the uniform jumped to the screen. They raised Uley on his chair and eagerly began to congratulate him, waving at the camera.  
"Idiots." Two-face gently said. "And this is our best snipers… Swan, you're free." She told Bella.  
Bella rose from her chair and out of the corner of her eye she saw the sheet that Sergeant Young showed Uley. There were only two words written: "Yes, sir."  
Two-face followed her gaze and repeated more persistently.  
"You're free, Swan!"  
"I beg your pardon, ma'am." Bella said and after a moment of thinking, she added. "Congratulations, ma'am."  
Two-face smiled wryly and said. "Thank you, Swan. But that is a military secret. Blurt it out and you'll go to the Tribunal."  
***

Trying to get rid of the image in her head of Sergeant Young in a white dress with a veil and a rifle, which sticks out from the barrel of the bride's bouquet, Bella decided to finish what she started and to call home, until the lecture begins.  
Renee answered the call.  
"Hey, Mom!" Bella said and started to look for decent words to describe her life in the Marines, but then she heard hysterical sobs. "Mom? What happened?"  
"Your father's got a mistress!" Renee issued through her tears. "Scoundrel!"  
Bella didn't know what to say. It wasn't worth, probably, to remind Renee that she cheated first, with Phil, before the eyes of entire Forks.  
"And it would be okay if it was some slut from the bar. Or Amanda Stevens. She's like a rubber woman, it would be shameful to be jealous of her." Renee continued to strike with her own special logic. "But he... He sleeps with Sue Clearwater! With the widow of his best friend! And this man was re-elected as sheriff of Forks again! He's the one that should be arrested by the vice squad! We aren't still divorced, by the way, and he..." Renee tragically sobbed. "Bedhopper!"  
Stunned Bella didn't know what to say about it. Is Charlie dating Sue? Of course, they always spent a lot of time together, especially after Harry's death. But Bella was sure that only friendship and fond memories of untimely departed loved one connected them.

"Now I understand what he wanted! He avenged me! Made me believe that he loves me and want me to return! And now he throws me away when I'm having his baby!" Renee sobbed.  
"Is the baby his?" Bella failed to keep amazement to herself. "But what about Phil?"  
"Phil may be the father of the baby as well! But he will surely make a paternity test! Laura Morgan saw me with Charlie and denounced him everything!" Renee cried. "How could he do this to me! Never trust men, Bella! They always need only one thing from woman!"  
Bella thought that if you offer men only one thing, you will be used only for this then, but instead she said.  
"Everything will be okay, Mom. You will still get the money for your child, no matter who turns out to be a father. Sorry, I must go. I have a lecture."  
"Bella..." As if suddenly Renee awakened. "How are you doing?"  
"I'm fine." Bella replied. "I've killed three talibans already."  
"Very well," Inattentive Renee said, who having asked a question, as always, didn't bother to listen to the answer. "Good luck, dear."  
"Yeah, thank you." Bella said and hung up.  
"Swan! It is fifteen minutes before the lecture already! Get your ass in the audience!" Passing Sergeant Carmen Rodriguez shouted. "And pull up your pants! They hang like you left a load in them!"  
"Yes, Ma'am!" Bella happily responded and, quickly moving with crutches, skipped to the lecture, pulling up her pants on the go.  
"Why are you so content?" Zafrina asked when Bella sat beside her at the table, beaming.  
"I'm not at home!" Bella happily breathed.  
"I would have liked to be at home." Bree said softly and looked at straight as an arrow Victoria. "I'm afraid of her..."  
"Don't worry, baby," Zafrina smiled, putting a hand on Bree's shoulder. We won't let this bitch hurt you!"  
***

After the lecture, they all went to the training ground. Today recruits had the first lesson of handling weapons.  
Standing there, Bella felt willies throughout her body. Today she told Emmett confidently that she was going to participate in shooting competitions. But she had no idea how other recruits from her platoon shoot.  
"Zaf, do you know how to shoot?" Bella asked her comrade.  
"With a gun." Zafrina said. "It isn't safe in my neighborhood to leave the house without gun, there is a chance you don't come back home in one piece."  
Sergeant Young and two other Drills showed them the structure of M16 rifle, which they already have seen at the lecture, and then quickly moved on to the practical exercises.  
The first five recruits shot so bad that Bella relaxed slightly, and the hurricane in her stomach began to subside.  
Finally there is something she can do not worse, but even better than the others, perhaps!  
"Private Reno! Enter the position!" Two-face ordered, who in spite of her engagement was just as harsh and severe.

Not looking at anyone, Victoria took the rifle and lay down on the ground, placing it on the palm with familiar gesture. Her hands weren't trembling, knees and heels were firmly pressed to the ground, and her left hand held forestock tightly.  
"Fire!" Two-face ordered.  
Victoria didn't flinch, fired, and the whole platoon groaned.  
"Fucking hell! Is she a human being at all?" Maggie from Kansas said in shock.  
Bella looked at the target and realized that she'll get the first place in the competition only in case of Victoria's sudden abduction by aliens.  
Private Reno shot right in the heart of the "enemy's" torso.  
Expression of almost rage instead of rapture appeared on Young's face.  
"Stand up, Private Reno!" She demanded.  
Victoria rose and stood before her, stretched out in attention.  
"Private Reno," Sergeant Young said surprisingly quiet and because of this even more ominously. "Who got you prepared?"  
"What do you mean, ma'am?" Victoria asked, not at all frightened by her sudden aggression.  
"Answer the question of the commander, Private! Two-face snapped. "Who got you prepared? I know where you learn to shoot like this. But I want to hear it from you. Tell me, Reno, or I'll pass you to the military police, otherwise, and let them interrogate you. Who trained you?"  
The whole platoon stood in amazement, and Victoria reluctantly replied.  
"I was trained by a retired sergeant of "Green Berets".


	11. Chapter 11

Two-face, hearing Victoria's answer, looked at her coldly and asked, "Was it his own initiative?"  
"Yes, ma'am." Victoria answered.  
"Who is he? Where did he serve?"  
"I can't mention his name." she said. "He had three trips to Iraq and one to Philippines."  
"How did you get to know him?" Two-face inquired.  
"I met him at Arlington National Cemetery, ma'am," Victoria replied. "On the Memorial Day last year."  
"What were you doing there, Private Reno?"  
"My fiancé is buried there." Victoria said.

Bella remembered the photo, which she picked up from the floor, and shivered. So the guy, whose hand Victoria held so tenderly, is dead!  
"So, did he just offer to make you a fighter of special forces suddenly?" Two-face hemmed.  
"I simply went to him and asked how a woman can go fight in Afghanistan." Victoria told, quietly looking at Drill .

"And he immediately took you as a padawan, of course." Sergeant Young said mockingly, apparently not believing in Victoria's story about her mysterious teacher.  
"No, ma'am. He asked me why did I need it."  
"What did you told him, Private Reno?"  
"That I want to kill the talibans." Victoria answered.  
Two-faced looked at her, "Do you want to avenge your fiancé?"  
"No, ma'am," Victoria replied. "I just want to live the way he did."  
Two-face looked at the silent because of what they heard girls and said,

"Not only you are a great shot, but a good speaker too, Reno. What else did this sergeant teach you?"

"Hand-to-hand and bayonet fighting, survival, camouflage, detonation technology, first aid and other courses, included into the preparation of "green berets"", Victoria responded. "At the male standards level."  
It became clear to Bella why Victoria performed all exercises with such an ease. She was stronger and sturdier than anyone other at the base with such preparation. Standards of "Green Berets" were much stricter than the ones of the Marines.

"Private Reno, now go to the military police and tell them everything that you've told me." Two-face ordered.

At that moment Bella saw Victoria's eyes flashing with fear for the first time.  
"Ma'am, I can't go to the military police!"  
"Private Reno, there isn't any mentioning about this preparation in your record. When a recruit intentionally misleads recruiter, and the whole Corps represented by him, he must realize that he's committing a crime. Drill instructor is not obliged to believe in your explanation of where you got those skills from. You could be a terrorist, a gang member or God knows who." Sergeant Young said coldly. "Only an investigation can establish what kind of bird you are in fact, a white swan or a vulture."  
"I'm not a terrorist, ma'am, and not a criminal!" Victoria exclaimed. "I am ready to answer for the fact I hid my fighting skills. But if they begin to learn my personal record I'll have to leave the Marine Corps."  
"Why?"  
"I haven't finished high school, I left it in sixteen." Victoria told with an obvious reluctance.

"You even presented a fake diploma to enlist." Sgt. Young grinned, realizing what caused Victoria's concern and unwillingness to communicate with military police. "So many lies at one time, Private Reno... Do you really think you have the right to stay here after this?"  
"Yes," Victoria eagerly exclaimed. "I have the right to stay here, ma'am. I'm a good soldier. I want to fight and I know how to do it. I have no family, no home. I have nothing to lose. Besides, I know Pashto!"

Two-face, who, apparently, was going to bring her to the military police herself, stopped abruptly and inquired, "Do you really know Pashto?"  
"Yes, ma'am." Victoria responded.

Two-face grinned and suddenly, without any preamble, spoke in a strange, jerky and abrupt language. Pausing, she looked at Victoria in anticipation. Still looking quietly at Drill, Victoria answered her, apparently in the same language, because a look of utter surprise appeared on Young's face. She clearly hoped that Victoria lied in the heat of the conversation.

"What the fuck?" Sergeant Young grunted, puzzled. "Where the hell did you learn Pashto, Reno?"  
"I found a refugee from Kabul and paid him for lessons." Victoria said. "I need to become a Marine, ma'am. I've been preparing for this for two years. I can't retreat now."

Two-face's look didn't promise anything good to Victoria, but suddenly Sergeant Rodriguez, who stayed silent before, approached Sergeant Young and said, "Ma'am, Private Reno is telling the truth. I can confirm this. I know the man who was preparing her."

"And who is this mysterious Rambo?" Two-face asked.  
Sergeant Rodriguez sighed and said, "He's my ex-boyfriend."  
***

"Your ex-boyfriend is a "green beret"!" Sergeant Young looked at second Drill with surprise.

"Yes, ma'am." Carmen Rodriguez said, nervously adjusting her beautiful curly hair. "He retired four years ago after the third trip to Iraq. He was in Philippines before Iraq." Sergeant Rodriguez hesitated, but still continued. "The thing is he's not in the right state of mind, ma'am. No, he's not dangerous for civilians." She assured Two-face, seeing how tense senior Drill's face became. "He simply went to live in the woods alone. He built a house by himself and lives there, hunts, fishes, and doesn't speak to anyone. Only once in a year he travels to Arlington on the Memorial Day. I tried to convince him to take treatment for PTSD, but he flatly refused. Caius tried to talk to him, but he arranged a hunt for him in the woods, drove him into a trap and released only after Caius vowed never to approach his house again."

"Who is Caius?" Two-face asked.  
"His former commander." Carmen Rodriguez answered. "Something happened to them in Iraq and my ex hates all the squad members ever since."

"And why do you think that Private Reno was coached by this guy?"  
"I visited him six months ago." Rodriguez said. "I saw some woman's belongings in his house. He said that a girl lived with him, whose fiancé was killed by the talibans, and now she wanted to go to war herself. He said he started to train her and that she was very capable..."  
Two-face was deep in thought and began to finger along the scar of her cheek, trying, apparently, to decide what to do next with such a unique recruit.

"Private Reno!" All of a sudden she said loudly to Victoria, who awaited her fate. "Tell me the name of your sensei. Only his first name, full name is not required."  
"Eleazar." Victoria answered.  
"That's him, ma'am." Carmen Rodriguez said.

Two-face swore under her breath, quickly went to Victoria and said, "You'll have to work very hard, Reno. More than all the rest. It is always more difficult to relearn than to learn from the scratch."

"To relearn?" Victoria seemed surprised with Drill's strange words. Apparently, she thought that everyone else should learn from her, and not the other way.

"I'll explain it for you using sex as an example. Judging by the pills you had with you, you know this subject not worse than characteristics of the Amtrack." Two-face said with irony. "So, the Marines are able not to fuck for months and months and then not to get out of the bed until their bearded partner almost dies from exhaustion. However, "green berets" are immediately told who to fuck, so they do it often, but only for five minutes, and when there is nobody to fuck, they get blue balls, therefore, they start harassing everybody who's simply passing by."

Bella didn't understand what Two-face meant by telling such a colorful metaphor, but she guessed that Sergeant Young strongly disliked the "Green Berets" for some reason.

"I can tolerate the abstinence, ma'am." Victoria said.

"So, you understand the difference between a regular service and a special operation then." Sergeant Young doubtfully said. "You aren't given twenty-four hours to eliminate a target or enemy base. From day to day you patrol surrounding villages and protect convoys, and even make purchases in the market and display a fucking friendliness to the local population, who doesn't need your fucking friendliness as well as yourself. Rodriguez," She turned to the second Drill. "This Eleazar has never been stuck in Iraq for years, has he?"

"No, ma'am." Sergeant Rodriguez answered. "They were short trips for particular operations."

"Reno, you said you wanted to kill the talibans. With your brain washed by this commando, you should realize that you may even not meet them for a year, spent in Afghanistan." Two-face said.

"But you've met them, ma'am." Victoria wasn't dismayed. "Maybe I'll get lucky too."  
"Lucky?" Two-face suddenly laughed. "You're free, Reno. Fall in."  
Victoria looked at her incredulously.  
"That's strange. I thought that the deaf were not taken in special forces." Sergeant Young looked at Reno quizzically.  
"Thank you, ma'am." Victoria said, and Bella thought that her voice broke for a moment. Or maybe Bella just wanted to believe in it.  
"Fall in." Two-face told Victoria again and ordered, "Platoon, continue the shooting!"

Going to shoot, Bella moved as if in a fog after all she heard.  
Special Forces, Iraq, talibans, Victoria. Everything was confused in Bella's mind. But she was certain of one thing - it all got really serious.  
If Victoria came here to go to war, they really can be send to Afghanistan.

She, Bella Swan, can actually be send to Afghanistan!

"Swan, did you opened your mouth to shove a muzzle in it?" Two-face asked as always sarcastically. "Down and get ready."  
Bella closed her mouth and took the position, but her hands were shaking more than the first time Two-face taught her to shoot with the M14.  
"Fire!" Two-face ordered, and Bella shot.

But this time, instead of putting the buttstock against shoulder fossa, she put it a little more to the right, and during the shot it hit Bella directly into the bone so that Bella was abruptly thrown out of her fog, and she hissed in pain.

"Swan, is it not enough for you to have torn ligaments, do you want a shoulder-cap as well?" Sergeant Young screamed at her. "The second attempt!"

Bella gritted her teeth. She needed to forget about Victoria and Afghanistan. She's here now.  
And she should show the best she can.

"Fire!" Sergeant Young ordered Bella, and she pressed on the trigger, exhaling.

Bullet hit the target, but it bounced off the side and rang somewhere to the right of the target.  
"That's enough, Swan. Fall in." Two-face ordered with satisfaction. "Next."

Rubbing her shoulder, Bella fell in and suddenly caught Victoria's look.  
There was astonishment in her eyes.  
Seeing that Bella looked at her, Reno immediately turned away and mimed a complete indifference.

But Zafrina, who also saw Victoria's fleeting confusion after Bella's shot, winked at her comrade and whispered with a smile.  
"Bells, you hit to death this target."


	12. Chapter 12

Bella's unexpected accuracy attracted Victoria Reno's attention permanently. And if the first time, when she caught her look, Bella felt like she had won a megabuck, then later she quickly realized that this gaze always prevented her from taking aim. Each time, picking up a rifle, Bella felt Victoria's stare burn her head, like a laser beam. She even began to jerk her head on a reflex, trying to shake off this sticky mesmerizing look, because of which the backsight went awry all the time and the bullet from her rifle flew anywhere, but not in the target. Two-face yelled at her till almost aortic rupture, but Bella couldn't distract herself from the transparent eyes, which were drilling her back. However, she couldn't tell Victoria to stop staring at her that way. She knew that Reno would only deride her and continue her dirty work.  
After three days of this staring game, Bella once again pulled the trigger sooner than she should due to Victoria's gaze, and the bullet had gone a foot to the left of the goal.

"Private Swan, stand up!" Two-face ordered, and Bella got up from the ground, waiting for a well-deserved punishment.

"Private Swan, why the hell do you shoot worse than the first time?" Sergeant Young shouted. "You twitch as an epileptic, toss, turn and twirl your fingers like a very shitty pianist! Don't practice scales on the buttstock! What the fuck is wrong with you? Do you have a nervous tic or something? Or do you just want to pee all the time? Then get your ass to the doctors and take treatment for the incontinence! We don't need such a rifleman here!"

Bella felt Victoria looking at her again, with a satisfied smile this time, and said, "I'll work on myself, ma'am."  
"What the fuck are you going to work on? Private Reno won't stop using her clumsy technique of psychological warfare on you. Moreover, I will order her to stare, not only in your back, but in the backs of all the other recruits too." Two-face suddenly said. "Or do you seriously think that in the real action everybody dies away while such a genius shooter aims, Swan? Apocalypse will start around you, but you must still shoot and hit the target, otherwise you are dead and your comrades are in the deep shit. Reno, take the rifle. Stand up close to Private Swan and start shooting and shouting songs about Uncle Sam, while Private Swan shoots." Two-face ordered. "Then you'll do the same to all the other recruits until everyone here does understand that there is no shooting gallery during the action."  
"Yes, ma'am." Victoria replied, took the rifle and went to bewildered Bella.  
Noticing a fervent glitter in Victoria's eyes, Bella immediately knew that it was the end.  
***

Victoria accomplished her duty with credit. She yelled training songs at the top of her voice, stamped her feet and riddled the whole target with bullets, preventing Bella from aiming. Her screams and constant rumble were deafening Bella's ears, until she finally lost any ability to think clearly. Fighting the urge to use M16 for its intended purpose and to release all bullets into Victoria's head, Bella gritted her teeth, closed her eyes for a few seconds, and, according to the advice of TV psychologists she'd heard once, imagined an incredibly beautiful uninhabited island in the middle of the ocean, with a single cozy hut on the beach, immersed in exotic colors. Wave of calm washed over her like a flow, and holding on this warm feeling inside, Bella opened her eyes, saw the target clearly, took a deep breath and fired, not paying attention to Victoria's yells.

Like three days ago, bullet jumped off the target again, yet being able to scratch its side.  
And it was perfect.

"Swan, you're free." Two-face ordered. "Next. Keep going, Reno. You yell so disgustingly, that you could become a great Drill.  
"Thank you, ma'am." Victoria took it as a compliment and started screaming even louder, so that Maggie, who took up the position after Bella, even flinched.  
Zafrina grinned and whispered in Bella's ear, "If Reno ever becomes a Drill, I won't envy her recruits..."  
***

Three days later, immediately after the breakfast and the first lecture, Bella went to Colonel Cullen for examination in the medical department. She really hoped he would allow her at least limited training with the rest of the platoon. Because looking at the other girls who day by day grew stronger and sturdier, Bella clearly understood that in a little while it would be unrealistic to catch up with them.  
The knee was bothering her less than before, and Bella thought that she can manage without crutches already. But first, she needed to gain permission for training from Colonel Cullen, whose office was locked on a key, as ill luck would have it.

Sighing, Bella went back, determined to go to the doctor later, but then she heard his voice nearby and saw senior Cullen with Two-face on the porch, where they both smoked with an obvious pleasure. Thinking that it would be faster to wait for the Colonel now than go looking for him again after dinner, Bella sat on the bench around the corner and had nothing to do but to listen to their conversation.

"This stupid ban on smoking in front of the recruits annoys me." Two-face said, puffing. "The larger half of my recruits smokes, but still I may not."

"Smoking is harmful." Colonel Cullen grinned, shaking off the ashes in a jar. "I tell you this as a doctor."

"Then why do you smoke too, sir?" Young grinned with half of her mouth.

"Because I like to give up smoking, Sergeant." The Colonel chuckled. "As soon as I give up smoking, Esme immediately bikes my favorite pie. So I give it up five times a year."

"Hasn't she already suspected that you lead her on?"

"Maybe, she has. But she still makes the pie. That's why I'm giving up smoking again tomorrow. It's been a long time since I ate it." The Colonel said dreamily. "Edward is much luckier. He took two pies in Quantico. And he didn't share with me."  
Two-faced laughed.

"Is it still unknown where he goes?"

"No. But it seems to be somewhere in the north, talibans has recently intensified there." The Colonel said. "They are forming a battalion now. Yesterday the company commander was appointed. It's Captain Royce King."

"He's the son of the congressman, isn't he?" Two-face frowned.

"Yes, he is." Colonel Cullen took another cigarette. "Edward described him as a pompous peacock with rooster's brain."

"I heard the same about him, only in unquotable expressions." Two-face hemmed. "Who is Edward's staff sergeant?"

"A guy named Jasper Whitlock." The colonel replied. "He's been in Quantico only for two months, he was transferred from Camp Pendleton (1). Edward says, he's a good Marine. He's been in Iraq for two years and knows his business well. But apparently, he was thoroughly blown in the head there."

"What do you mean?" Sergeant Young asked.

"Two years is the deadline for service in the countries of deployment. One can be called in for more than that only in case he has rare skills - knowledge of language or sniper talents, like your Uley for example." The Colonel said. "Whitlock is just a good infantryman. So he wrote about twenty letters with requests to send him to war, until finally he was sent to Afghanistan."  
"Lucky him." Sergeant Young exhaled smoke from her lungs. "I've written over fifteen times and was refused."

Colonel looked at her in a new way, but said nothing, and Sergeant Young angrily continued, "I even have a rare skill. I know Pashto and Dari. My first military major was translator. I was retrained as a machine gunner only in Kandahar, when there was simply no one else to take in the tower. But now they only look at my photos and say, "You have enough already." It would have been better if the damn shrapnel broke my ass. It can't be seen on the photo, at least."

"I think, soon they won't be looking at the photo any longer." Colonel Cullen sadly said.

"Why?"

"There is a critical shortage in infantry. Nobody wants to go there." The colonel said. "There will be a draft of reservists soon. It's already a done deal."

"So, translators will be retrained in machine gunners again. Sergeant Young mused. "I wish they called me in instead of these reservists. I have a bigger chance to survive and to do the job. I know, for one, that you can't turn your back to anyone there, even children."

"Children?" The colonel looked at her.

"My corporal was shot by twelve year old boy. While he lit a cigarette, that bitch went for his father's AK and shot him in the head." Two-face said, wincing.

"I told you, smoking is harmful." Colonel Cullen said grimly.

"That's correct." Sergeant Young grinned wryly and tossed a fag end in the trash. "I'll be waiting for your medics tomorrow at eight, sir."

"Got it, Sergeant Young." Colonel Cullen nodded. "I'll send the most fun ones. Let your recruits know that physicians are Marine's best friends!"

Two-face left and Colonel Cullen strode towards his office. After what she's just heard, Bella wasn't ready to talk with him. The story about twelve year old killer knocked her out of the saddle for at least a couple of hours.

But Colonel Cullen himself noticed her and merrily inquired, "Did you come to see me, Private Swan?"

"Yes, sir." Bella said with difficulty.

"Then come in my office." He said, opening the door. "I 'm going for coffee."  
Bella obediently came in the office and sat down on the couch.

On the Colonel Cullen's table she saw a photo, in which he and a beautiful dark-haired woman with kind eyes were hugging on both sides dressed in full uniform Lieutenant Cullen. There wasn't a "Purple Heart" or a "Navy Cross" on junior Cullen's uniform. Apparently, this picture was taken before Afghanistan and very much likely that it was the graduation day from Annapolis. Lieutenant Cullen smiled happily and looked perfectly content on it. Remembering how much bile there was in his voice when he ridiculed Bella, she thought that life clearly didn't spare this still very young guy. Just in few years he turned from handsome boy with a kind smile into an arrogant and cruelly spiteful man, who didn't draw Bella's admiration despite his heroic deed.

Hearing footsteps, Bella turned away from the photo and looked at Colonel Cullen, who came with a cup of coffee in his office and immediately asked, "How is your knee, Private Swan?"

"Better, sir," Bella replied. "I... I would like to start training with my platoon."

"Do you want to get in shape for the competition?" The Colonel smiled.  
"Well... Yes, sir." Bella replied.  
"Then let's see if you have a chance to participate in the Olympic race." The Colonel Cullen said, putting on his glasses.  
***

Twenty minutes later, Colonel Cullen returned to his chair, waited until Bella puts herself in order, and said, "If I were you, I wouldn't hurry to start working out. Abnormal mobility of the joint is still present. And that means a high risk of re-injury and complete rupture of ligaments. In this case you will have to endure the operation and long recovery."

"The thing is… It's not even about competitions, sir." Bella said. "I am already much weaker physically than the majority of recruits. I studied well in school…"

"But your physical education teacher was immediately pricked in heart at the sight of you."

Colonel Cullen smiled and Bella immediately thought that Lieutenant Cullen clearly inherited his sharp tongue from his father.

"Yes, sir." Bella admitted. "And I'm afraid that if miss a few more weeks, I just won't be able to catch up with everyone."

Colonel Cullen smiled. "Private Swan, if you get in the surgery, most likely you will be expelled for medical reasons. And I don't think you want home so badly."

Bella imagined her return home in a cast and on the crutches, disgraced, Renee suing the Marine Corps for compensation for moral and physical harm, and Charlie blaming Renee for Bella's becoming a helpless invalid. The very same Bella, who wouldn't be able to get away from them, being in fact one-legged, and will be forced to listen to their bickering twenty four hours a day.

"Apparently, you really don't want to go home, Private Swan." Senior Cullen said with irony, seeing a mad horror on her face at the mere thought of returning home. "Then, you have to listen to me and don't make any sudden movements at least for another week. However, you can already go with the help of the usual stick instead of crutches."  
Stick? Just excellent. Now, instead of a war veteran Bella Swan will look like an old woman!  
***

In a gloomy mood Bella returned to the barracks and saw that she still had fifteen minutes of free time, so she decided to write a letter to Angela and to complain in it about her clinical bad luck, due to what she is falling behind the others for a while and look like a complete loser.

"Swan." Bella suddenly heard the voice of Victoria. Turning, she saw that Reno is standing right behind her, and that there is no one else in the barracks except for themselves.

"I've wanted to talk to you for a long time." Victoria said. "Alone. But there always was your emigrant girlfriend next to you."

Bella shivered. Due to her school encounters with Jessica, she knew there was nothing good to be expected from such a talk.

"What do you want, Victoria?" Bella asked warily.  
Victoria came closer to her and said, "Go back home, Swan, before it's too late."  
"Are you threatening me?" Bella stepped back.  
"No," Victoria shook her head. "I'm asking you."  
Bella stared at Victoria. There was no irony, no malice in her eyes; they looked at Bella strictly and seriously.  
"What are you asking me?" Bella asked puzzled.  
"To leave the depot." Victoria said. "You don't belong here."  
"I've heard those words from you already, and soon after your girlfriend gave me crutches." Bella said with indignation.  
"I haven't ordered it. And she was punished for it." Victoria said.  
"Punished?" Bella suddenly remembered that the next day after the incident Heidi did look somewhat scruffy.

"I didn't beat her." Victoria said, probably guessing what Bella was thinking about. "I just made her do push-ups on the floor fifty times. I have my own rules, too."

"So what do you want from me? Me to go?" Bella paused, but still decided to tell what she's thinking. "Is it because I'm a good shot? Are you afraid I'll give you a competition?"

Victoria laughed. "Swan, I swear I thought you were smarter. I do not care for these competitions. I didn't come here for a cup. I'm here to go to the war. Although, even if you train every day, you still won't win."

Hearing those words, Bella immediately boiled from desire to prove her otherwise, but Victoria continued, "As I told you, it doesn't matter. No matter how you shoot, you'll never be a good Marine. If you pass the exam, you'll put on the uniform, but in your heart you'll stay all the same pathetic coward who came here."

"You don't know me!" Bella exclaimed.

"No. I know. I know a lot of people like you. And one of you is still alive, because my James died." Victoria said. "This guy was a good shot at the depot too, and he went to serve as a rifleman in Afghanistan. And once the talibans went on the attack, he wept, knelt beside armored vehicles and began to pray. And James was ordered to cover him... You'll be a burden, Swan. Burden for the entire platoon. It'll be good, if only a burden."

"Are you sure that you yourself won't behave that way in a fight?" Bella inquired.

"I'm sure." Victoria said and added. "I checked. Go to college, Swan. Marry and have children, and sit in the office. Leave the war to me. This is not a game and not a race for popularity. You just don't realize what you've signed for."

Bella suddenly remembered the story about Two-face's corporal, who was killed by a boy of twelve years, and said firmly, looking at Victoria, straight in her eyes.  
"No, I understand. And I'm staying."

_  
(1) Camp Pendleton - Marine Corps Base in Oceanside (CA)


	13. Chapter 13

"So, you won't back down…" Victoria said irritably, obviously not liking the answer to her ultimatum. Her clear eyes, which Bree was so afraid of, slid across Bella's face with a sneer.

"No. Only the command can expel me, in case they think that I don't cope with the training." Bella said with all her determination. "You're a recruit, like me, Victoria. You don't decide anything here."

"Private Swan has grazed the target twice and thinks that she's cool now." Victoria grinned. "Your childish stubbornness could be even funny if you weren't in uniform. Swan, you are wearing Marine uniform as a cheerleader costume, and wielding a rifle like pompoms. In school they shove heads of the ones like you in the toilet, and then you all feel downtrodden in life and dream of getting into cheerleader squad. Calm down. School has ended. It's not necessary for the sake of showing off to get into places where you can ruin the lives of others and yourself."

"If you know how terrible the war is, why do you want to get there so much?" Bella asked, who still thought that Victoria just wanted to get rid of a competitor, but was making it in the most cunning way possible. It was much better to convince Bella to leave than to break her legs and draw attention of the military police.

"Because I'm already in the war for a long time." Victoria said.

They heard footsteps in the barracks, and Victoria immediately moved away from Bella, but managed to say in the end, "You'll leave the Corps before the final exam, Swan. Any way."

"Bells, is everything all right?" Zafrina came up, giving Victoria a watchful glance.

"Yes." Bella nodded, although she was still shaking. Victoria was like an energy vampire, sucking out all the power without a trace.

"What did she want?" Zafrina asked, noticing Bella's shock.

"She asked me to leave."

"As soon as you've shown her that she has a rival, our tattered cat immediately showed her claws." Zafrina grimaced. "She has the nerve. She didn't even try to hide her envy."

"Envy?" Bella was surprised.

"Of course. You shoot better than the others after her, and you didn't have to live six months in the woods with the nuts commandos." Zafrina grinned. "Forget about that bitch and train calmly. Let her choke her gall on the competition!"

Bella smiled, but her soul wasn't in the place. When they were coming out of the barracks, Bella looked at Zafrina and asked, "Zaf, could you kill a man?"

Zafrina thought for just a moment and said quickly, "If it's an enemy, I could. If you take weapon in your hands, you must be willing to use it. Otherwise it's not worth taking, you'll only lure the death."

"Have you already shot people?" Bella asked, remembering that once Zafrina was in youth gang.  
Zafrina guessed what Bella thought and laughed.

"I hijacked cars and didn't go to shoot-out. To do this, we had other people. Hey, look, seems that our little sister isn't wasting her time."

Bella turned and saw in the corner near the barracks Bree with some dark-haired guy, who was giving her clearly not a friendly hug, whispering something in her ear.

"Hey, Tanner, we have lecture in five minutes. If you're late, you'll have sex not with this handsome, but with our Drill and in particularly perverse way!" Zafrina shouted merrily.

Bree and the guy crawled out of the shelter, red with embarrassment.  
"Will I see you tonight?" The guy asked Bree, taking his hand from her shoulder.  
"Of course!" Bree answered, languidly looking at the young man from beneath her lashes.  
"See you later, then!" The guy waved and quickly ran to the other building. The stripe on his uniform showed that his name was Ruis.

Bree joined Zafrina and Bella, nervously straightening her crumpled from the hot embrace uniform.  
"Who's that Latin macho?" Zafrina asked ironically.  
"That is Diego from the second platoon." Bree said. "He's from Seattle, like me." Her cheeks turned pink . "And he's so cute..."

"Tanner, I do hope you remember what Sergeant Young said about the brothel?" Zafrina grinned, forcing Bree to blush even more.

"Zaf, Diego... He's not like that!" She cried indignantly.  
"They are always not like that initially." Zafrina smiled. "Your daughter's father wasn't like that too, probably, was he?"  
"Diego is really not like that!" Bree replied heatedly. "My ex... He was a scoundrel. Diego cares about me, though. I think he really likes me..."

Zafrina hugged Bree and said with a smile, "Just don't forget where you are. They soft-pedal this issue for men, but you would be branded as a whore and thrown outside the gates, if anyone finds out. So don't get carried away, sister. You do need this job."

"Very much so." Bree nodded sadly but then looked merrily at Bella. "Bells, by the way, is that cool baseball player your boyfriend? He's Diego's platoon leader."  
"No. He's not my boyfriend." Bella hastily assured her. "We're just friends."  
"Pity," Bree sighed. "He's cute. You would have been a great couple."  
Bella imagined herself on a date with Emmett and laughed.  
"No way, Bree! He needs a gorgeous busty blonde, not me!"  
***

The next day at eight in the morning after the usual running, push-ups, pull-ups and other mandatory exercises, in which Bella didn't participate because of her knee, but only watched from the top while filling out the papers for Two-face, Sergeant Rodriguez lined them up in the row and ordered to wait. Five minutes later Sergeant Young appeared on the stadium, accompanied by two pretty girls with blond hair that looked like sisters. When they came closer, Bella realized that they were sisters indeed, they had the same name - Denali on the uniform.

"Hey, recruits!" One of the sisters, a beautiful woman with an unusual silver hair, shouted. "I'm Irina and this is my sister Kate." She pointed to the second blonde girl with straight hair, tucked away in a high ponytail. "We are naval medics, and our task is to show you how to provide first aid in combat."

"Usually we conduct training with the guys, because we love to demonstrate mouth-to- mouth on the volunteers." Kate said, and two sisters laughed merrily.

Bella realized that Colonel Cullen kept his promise and sent the most vivacious physicians to train them. But Sergeant Young, judging by her face, which was impossible to look at without a shudder, was ready to kill him for it. Her harsh "military" soul could not tolerate frivolous humor of Denali sisters.  
However, despite their playful nature, Irina and Kate knew their business and quickly taught recruits how to stop the bleeding, help shell-shocked, do the chest compressions, drag the wounded, and lots more that every Marine needed to know about the medicine.

"Now, recruits, you will apply the skills you've learned in practice." Kate said, when they finished their teaching. "Your comrade is wounded, you have to help him and pull him out of the fire by yourself. Is the task clear?"  
"Yes, ma'am!" The platoon responded.

Zafrina looked at Bella, who fumbled with the hated stick in her hands, and said, "You'll be the wounded one, Swan. No options."

"Leave me, Zaf!" Bella said in a tragic voice. "I'm dead. Save yourself."

"Shut up, Private." Zafrina shushed her, continuing to drag Bella to the finish, which was near the Denali sisters. "You must live to eat lasagna for dinner."

"Do we really have lasagna for dinner?" Bella immediately returned to the world of living.

"This is it! Viva the healing power of the food!" Zafrina exclaimed solemnly, crossing the finish line.

"Very good, Private Noboa. Your friend owes you her life." Irina said, when panting Zafrina and Bella stretched before her toe the line.

Victoria came next, easily carrying Bree on her deceptively fragile shoulders. Almost throwing her down, Victoria suddenly looked at Two-face and physicians and asked, "May I ask a question, ma'am."

"Go ahead." Two-face said coldly.

"Why are we taught to carry the wounded? It's the task of medics. It's clear that there are few doctors and they are not always there, but in combat it's appropriate for Marines to continue to shoot, rather than waste their time on someone else's work." Victoria said.

Smiles immediately disappeared from Irina's and Kate's faces and Sergeant Young's face looked like an ugly stone mask. The blood rushed to scars on her cheek, and her eyes were glassy. Bella was scared that Drill would lash out at Victoria, but Sergeant remained motionless and in somewhat strange, muffled voice said, "Because we are humans, and not animals, Private Reno."

"Those who go to rescue the wounded usually get injured themselves." Victoria said. "This only increases the number of casualties."

"And what if you're the one who's wounded, Reno?" Two-face asked in the oppressive silence.

"I'm ready to die without help, so that the enemy is destroyed." Victoria replied calmly.

"Are you so sure you won't waver?" Two-faced grinned.

"I know I won't, ma'am." Victoria said. "I'll kill myself if I become a burden to the platoon."

"Time is running out." Irina interrupted, not knowing how else to stop this awful dialogue.

"Free, Reno." Two-face commanded in a dead voice. "Continue the training."

Victoria fell in, and Bella saw that an empty space was immediately formed around her. Nobody wanted to stand next to her after what they heard. Victoria noticed the silent boycott and throwing everyone a wolfish look, inquired, "You consider me a bitch, right? Now tell me, which one of you is ready to drag me himself during the fight?"

Everyone was confused and suddenly Bella heard her own voice, which said loudly, "I am."  
***

Hearing such strange words from Bella, Victoria turned to her in rage.

"Maybe it's enough already to pretend to be someone special, Swan? I do hate hypocrites more than cowards. If you hate me, just say it. But don't pretend to be a saint."

"Shut up, Reno!" Two-face yelled. "You've said enough today!"  
Victoria stopped, but she stood tensely, like a compressed spring.

"Bells, why did you say that?" Zafrina asked in disbelief.  
"I don't know." Bella replied honestly. "It just broke out. I wanted her to realize that we are not what she thinks. She believes that we would leave her and let her die if she was wounded."

"Would you really go under the bullets to save her?" Even more surprised Zafrina asked.  
"I don't know." Bella said, embarrassed. "But I don't like that she judges us by herself."

"You can't change her." Zafrina said. "She just doesn't believe in good and therefore can't see it. Even if you pull her out from the enemy's fire, she'll just say that you did it for the medals."

Bella looked at Victoria and thought that she and the Colonel's son had something similar. Reno, as well as Lieutenant Cullen after having faced pain and injustice, both spread their offense not only to those who caused them this pain, but also for the whole world at once.  
And in order to restore their faith in people, one Bella Swan wouldn't be enough ...  
***

Five days of the usual military drill later Bella and other recruits once again lined up early in the morning, waiting for Two-face. But this time, Senior Drill came not alone, but together with the same young man, who Bella saw on the laptop screen a week and a half ago. Trying not to show her awareness of who the tanned guy in the uniform actually is, Bella didn't look at his side so that not to anger Two-face.

"Who's this guy?" Zafrina said in surprise, when Two-face and Uley came closer.  
"Recruits!" Sergeant Young loudly addressed to her platoon. "This is Gunnery Sergeant Sam Uley. We served together in Afghanistan."

"And not only served." Bella almost commented, but restrained herself, thinking that Young will tear her head off for gossiping about her private life.

"He has just returned from Iraq, where he served as an infantry sniper." Two-face continued. "He has seventy-five confirmed liquidations on his service record. Not Carlos Hathcock (1), of course, but he knows his job."

"Thanks for the introduction, Sergeant Young." Uley grinned. "I do still have time to catch up with Carlos Hathcock. Although, the main thing is not the number of liquidations, but a target's characteristics. To kill a usual insurgent is not as cool as to exterminate the enemy sniper."

Two-face gave him a mocking glance and continued, "Gunny (2) Uley loves to watch how badly the other Marines shoot comparing to him. Therefore, he'll be present during your training. So now you have to tear up your asses, but show him that you are real shots, and not porn actresses with props!"

"Yes, Ma'am!" Recruits echoed loudly, and Zafrina whispered to Bella, "Come on, Bells! Show this Uley your best!"

_  
1. Carlos Hathcock - one of the most famous American snipers, he became famous during the Vietnam War. There are 93 confirmed liquidation and about 300 unconfirmed ones (without fixing the presence of enemy bodies) on his record. He was Gunnery Sergeant as well.  
2. Gunny - informal, often used abbreviation of Gunnery Sergeant.

**A/N**: I'm wondering, dear readers, what do you think will happen with Bella next? How do you like this story in general? Review, please!

By the way, next chapter is going to be a bonus about Edward))).


	14. Bonus about Edward 1

"I've found out an interesting thing, sir." Staff Sergeant Jasper Whitlock entered the room and passed a cup of coffee to Lieutenant Cullen.

For a week already they were at the assembly point in Quantico, where mobilized for service in Afghanistan privates, sergeants and officers were arriving. This waiting was pretty boring for Lieutenant Cullen, who wanted to get in Afghanistan as fast as possible. After all, the sooner he begins serving in that damned by all gods place, the faster he returns home.

"What kind of thing, Sergeant?" Cullen asked, taking the cup.

"Have you seen Corporal Jacob Black, sir?" Whitlock sat down and took out a cigarette, then saw the "no smoking" sign on the wall, cursed and tore it in half, spilling tobacco directly into the coffee.

"Sergeant, you should urgently sell this idea to Starbucks, and then you can retire and live on your own island." Cullen grinned.  
"I don't need it, sir." Whitlock smiled. "I love the Marine Corps."

""I love working for Uncle Sam"... I know this chant, Sergeant." Cullen said with a wry grin. "So what's up with this corporal? Is he "Don't ask, don't tell" (1) kind of the guy? Is it time to sew up our asses?"

"No, sir." Whitlock laughed. "He's alright in that sense. It's his father."  
"And who is his father? Chuck Norris?"

"The "Black Dog" Black." Whitlock said. Cullen jerked, spilling his coffee over.  
"Are you sure?" Coughing, Cullen stared at the sergeant.  
"Yes, sir." Whitlock said. "It's certain."  
"Fucking shit!"

Billy the "Black Dog" Black was a legend of the Marine Corps and its business card for several reasons. Firstly, he was a hero of the Vietnam War, who's been in prison of the Viet Cong for five years, secondly, he was the only one who survived the fall of the shot down helicopter in Kuwait, and thirdly, the first native American who became the three-star general (2) of the U.S. Marine Corps. And now a fucking son of this favorite of the recruiters, who have molded his photo on the booklets since Edward was still a child, is a corporal in his platoon! Edward had already stood more than enough of that reach sonny Royce King and his father the congressman!

"And is our radio operator, by any chance, Paris Hilton?" Cullen breathed, realizing that two years of his life, it seemed, could be surely deleted from his biography, so that he could forget about them for good.

"Almost," Whitlock grinned. "Our radio operator is Captain King's mistress."

At this point, Lieutenant Cullen realized that he wanted to wake up somewhere in Hawaii with a buxom beauty, like Lilo's sister from the "Lilo and Stitch" cartoon, which Carly was so fond of. It was just too much!

"How did you learn all this, Whitlock?" Cullen chuckled. "You're like a chick, while having coffee, you collected all the gossip."

Staff Sergeant, usually unflappable as the stone idol from the Easter Island, clearly got embarrassed and quickly said, "I didn't collect gossip, sir. I just met Alice. At the coffee machine."

"What Alice?" Cullen asked.  
"Captain Alice Brandon, sir, the nurse." Whitlock said. "She said she served in Parris Island, under your father's command."

"Oh yeah, it's Tinkerbelle! I remember her." Cullen chuckled. "She has a voice like a squeak of the antivirus."  
"It seemed to me like the ring of the bells." Whitlock said.  
"Sergeant, the most important is that it weren't the wedding bells." Cullen winked and in that moment the door of the room opened.

There on the threshold a girl wearing a khaki stood, clearly civilian though, with two men, one of whom was holding a big camera on his shoulder. They looked at Cullen and Whitlock, and she exclaimed, "Can I talk to the First Lieutenant Edward Cullen?"  
"You can, if not afraid." Edward said.

"Are you Lieutenant Cullen?" The girl rejoiced, looking at the name on his uniform. "I'm Lauren Mallory, a correspondent from the CNN. This is my cameraman Mike Newton and soundman Tyler Crowley. Captain King has probably told you already that we will shoot a movie about your company serving in Afghanistan."

"Motherfucker." Lt. Cullen said.  
CNN correspondent went speechless from his reaction, and entering the room Captain Royce King sternly said, "Lieutenant Cullen, swearing in the presence of a lady is unworthy of the Marine Corps officer. Apologize to Miss Mallory immediately."  
"I beg your pardon, Miss Mallory." Lieutenant Cullen said dryly.  
"I also apologize for my platoon commander's behavior, Miss Mallory. He will suffer an appropriate punishment."

Lieutenant Cullen looked darkly at Captain King and Lauren Mallory exclaimed, "There's no need to punish anybody! I sometimes curse like a trooper myself! Apparently, our appearance was a complete surprise for Lt. Cullen."

"Lieutenant Cullen was absent this morning, when I announced that we'll be accompanied by a group of employees from CNN to shoot about life of the Marines in Afghanistan for six months, due to the consultation with the command." Captain King said.

"Why only six months? We are going to hang about there for two years." Cullen said with exasperation.

"You weren't given the right to speak, Lieutenant." Captain King besieged him. "It's an important for the Corps' image project. In Afghanistan you won't "hang about" as you have allowed yourself to say, you'll be serving your country. Please follow me, Miss Mallory. Lieutenant Cullen, come to my office in an hour!"

Captain King and the journalists went out of the room. Lieutenant Cullen sipped his cold coffee and said, stretching his lips into a smile, "Big Brother is watching you (3)."

"This idea certainly belongs to Congressman King, sir." Whitlock said, who was not thrilled with this news too.

"Whitlock, if we can't curse, how are we going to command the platoon then?" Cullen chuckled.

"Apparently like this, sir. "Corporal Black, would you be so kind to deprive that bearded gentleman of life? He unlawfully turned the grenade launcher our way."" Whitlock said.

"Sounds like an invitation to a ball." Cullen grinned. "By the way, why this Black is only corporal, if his father is the "Black Dog"?"

"The "Black Dog" himself began as a private in Corps and wants his son also to start from the bottom, sir."

"He's a severe man then." Cullen drank his disgusting cold coffee. "I have to call my dad and tell him about this circus. Whitlock, it will be the best trip of our lives!"

(1) «Don't Ask, Don't Tell» - a law that was passed by Bill Clinton in 1993, which allowed gays to serve in the army, if they will not openly declare their sexual orientation. It was abolished only in 2011. Accordingly, it works at full strength in fanfic. Consequently, Ed suggested that Jake was a gay.  
(2) The three-star general - Lieutenant General - official military rank of a senior officer in the Marine Corps. There is only (four-star) General above in ranks.  
(3) Big Brother is watching you - a phrase from "1984" by George Orwell, a symbol of total control and violence against the person.

**A/N**: Edward is definitely lucky in this story ;). What do you think? Do you like Jasper so far? Review, please.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N**: _Dear Readers, I won't be able to update so often anymore. I tried to translate as much as possible while I had a free time, now, though, the story will be updated most likely once in a week. Considering that chapters will get bigger, it's a good thing, I hope. _

_Also, I would like to thank again to those, who reviewed this story. I know I've made mistakes, seeing as I'm not a native speaker, but I do hope they weren't that much obvious. If anyone of you would like to beta this story, send me PM, please._

_Finally, I do hope all of you will have a nice laugh in this chapter. I, as well as the author of this story, will be glad if you share your impressions of this story with us. So, don't forget to review, please!_

During the training, while the other recruits shot, Bella watched Uley closely. At first, girl's inability to hit the target amused him, then he became frankly bored, and finally he took out a cigarette and lit it up.

Two-face squinted at him angrily and said, "We aren't allowed to smoke in front of the recruits."

"Drills are the ones who aren't allowed." Gunny replied with a cheeky smile. "And I'm the guest of honor here. I can do anything."

Two-face, who was constantly tormented with nicotine hunger, was ready to kill him. She could endure Uley's smoking in front of her for five minutes only and then she said angrily, "Gunny, if you're bored, I have a job for you."  
"What job?" Uley asked, flicking the ashes and smoking again, teasing his bride as if to spite her.

"To be the target." Two-face answered.  
Uley laughed, and Sergeant Young said gravely, "I'm not kidding, Gunny."

"Shooting in the live targets isn't included in the program." Uley looked at her slyly.  
"Yes. But the rewards are given for what is being done above the program." Two-face grinned. "Rodriguez, bring here the cartidges, which we use to exercise!"

"The ones with paint?" Uley chuckled.  
"Yeah," Two-face nodded. "You will be blue, like a Smurf."

"We'll see." Uley winked at her. "Your shots need to hit me, first."  
***

Uley's joke was prophetic. In ten minutes recruits spat paint all around the Gunnery Sergeant, but never managed to hit him. Uley toiled out of boredom, but he stood straightly, not fidgeting, apparently thanks to the ability to sit still for hours in ambush. Bella remembered Zafrina's words about showing him the best she could, waited for her turn and entered the position decisively. Glancing at Victoria, Bella saw her smiling and throwing a couple of words to Heidi, who immediately sent a kiss to Bella, looking like she has just spat a poison at her. Damn. It wasn't worth to look at them!"

"Swan!" Two-face yelled. "Stop staring around yourself. Enemy is in front of you!"  
"While you were turning your head, you've died sixty times already, Private Swan!" Uley said, and Bella was surprised to realize that Gunnery Sergeant was watching her all this time. Unlike Victoria's stare, which burned her head through, Bella didn't even feel his gaze; moreover, it seemed that Gunny had never looked in her direction, delving in his iPod instead.

She needed to forget about everything, the fact that professional sniper watched her, that Victoria and Heidi giggled behind her, that no one except Zaf didn't believe in her success.

She had to forget everything and shoot. The way she had been taught, calmly and confidently.  
Bella took position and aimed.

An island. She has to conjure up the island, which has brought her luck the last time. Quiet splash of the waves has slowed the beating of her heart again, the picture before her eyes cleared up immediately, as if an invisible hand wiped the dust from the screen, and Bella shot.

Even before she saw the result, Bella heard a wild laughter from all sides. Even Two-face failed to keep from laughing. Looking at Uley, Bella realized in horror that she had just joined the unfortunate guy from Emmett's platoon, who's Drill caught him masturbating.

The projectile of paint from Bella's rifle hit the Gunnery Sergeant straight between his legs.  
***

"Private Swan, such a shot is prohibited by international convention for its exceptional brutality." Uley said after his laughter ended. There, on the most conspicuous place of his pants a bright blue spot flaunted.

The whole platoon laughed again, and Bella was ready to die on the spot.  
Hiding her head, she returned in line, followed by incessant cackling.

"Bells, did you do that on purpose?" Zafrina asked, laughing.  
"It was an accident." Bella said, blushing to her ears. The last time she felt so stupid was when Jessica splashed the water on her pants in the bathroom in sixth grade, and then told everyone that Bella peed on herself.

"Swan, do you know what your shot means according to Freud?" Jane hailed Bella, she was another friend of Victoria, a beautiful blonde with cold eyes.  
"Swan, you need a man!" Sue from Minnesota grinned. "And not a rifle."

"Shut up!" Two-face yelled, trying to regain the cheered platoon to order. "Uley, go change your pants." She laughed again, looking at her fiancé. "Otherwise, the training won't continue until the evening!"  
***

When Sam Uley brought himself presentable, the shooting continued. But Bella Swan realized that her life at Parris Island would never be the same. Even Zafrina and Bree couldn't look at her without laughing, though they sincerely asked forgiveness for it.

When it was Victoria's turn to shoot the platoon suddenly went quiet. Everyone waited how Uley would react to the unusual accuracy of Private Reno.  
"I do hope she misses this time." Zafrina said and Bella could swear that most of the platoon was thinking the same right now.  
Victoria as always skillfully took aim, but instead of the shot the click of misfire sounded in silence like thunder.

"Hallelujah!" Zafrina breathed and added. "God sees everything, Reno."

Eyeing satisfied with her failure colleagues with contemptuous look, Victoria began defiantly and calmly to reload her rifle, but it's shutter immediately jammed.  
"This is karma." Bree chuckled.  
Victoria's face was flushed but her lips were white.

"M16's main drawback is that if it hasn't been cleaned for a long time, it can jam forever, which means that soon you'll lay a flag." Two-face commented while Victoria began to disassemble her rifle with sharp movements. "There is a particularly high probability of this crap if there is a lot of sand. Therefore, never be lazy to clean your rifle. Even if you are tired, you haven't guzzled in a long time, and you're sick of everything, you have to clean the rifle. Do yourself a tattoo on your arm as a reminder, if your noggin is not able to remember it. Love your rifle, and it will never fail you."

Victoria managed to reassemble the rifle during Two-face's monologue and was fully ready to shoot.

And this time the rifle didn't disappoint, projectile of paint slammed directly in the plate with the name on the Uley's chest.

"It's good that I'm in my old uniform today." Uley chuckled, looking with interest at Victoria.

"Shut up, Gunny," Two-face grinned. "You're dead."  
***

When the training was over, crushed Bella trudged along with everyone to the barracks, but suddenly heard Uley's voice, "Private Swan, hold on for five minutes."

Bella stopped and said, "Excuse me, sir. I didn't do it on purpose."

"Pity." Uley said with a smile. "It was the most fun shot of all that I have ever seen. It may only be compared to my friend's shot, who killed the gunner through a donkey, while the donkey still stayed alive."  
"Was it Quil?" Two-face asked, approaching them.  
"Of course, Quil." Uley chuckled. "He brought that donkey to the base then and treated him, and let the children ride it."  
Bella hardly imagined how someone could shoot through a donkey, but Gunny didn't seem to be joking.

"Private Swan." Once again he turned to Bella, and she prepared for the next portion of deserved ridicule. "You have a talent."

Of course, the talent. Talent to get into stupid situations.

"Private Swan, actually I've said it quite seriously." Uley said, noticing how Bella ruffled and added, "Were you a guy, I would advise your Drill to recommend you on sniper courses."  
***

His words struck Bella like a lightning.  
"Me?" Bella looked at Gunny in shock. "But I'm... I shot badly, though..."

"To hit the man from a hundred and fifty feet distance is very good. And your shot, in all its originality, inflicted a heavy damage on enemy." Gunnery Sergeant said without irony. "What is your military major, Private?"  
"Accounting of ammunition and explosives, sir." Bella said, confused.  
"So, all your talents will die at the computer." Uley chuckled ruefully.

"Enough to embarrass the girl, Uley. She's only eighteen. She's a sniper, as you're a ballerina." Two-face besieged him.  
"First, I studied dancing at school, and secondly, in Fallujah, I came across a girl, a sniper, and she was not more than seventeen."

"Uley, if you met her, then she didn't live for long." Young skeptically said, clearly not inspired by her fiancé's intervention in her work."

"Yes, only not because she was girl, but because she miscalculated an amendment on the wind. Sniper usually doesn't have a second chance. And it doesn't depend on having boobs." Uley said. "There were ten notches on her buttstock. It's unlikely they were simply struck. Women are underestimated in the army. You do say so yourself, Sergeant Young. Or did you write without reason a letter to General Conway (1) with a petition to lift the ban on women's participation in hostilities and collected two thousand signatures beneath? By the way, what did you get in return?"

"Of course, refusal." Two-face replied grimly. "Come on, Uley. Free, Private Swan."

"Sir, why me and not Private Reno?" Bella asked Gunnery Sergeant.

"This redhead has the wrong temper." Uley said. "There is too much anger in her and snipers are quiet, reserved and non-conflict people. Like you, Private Swan." Leaving, he turned and shouted cheerfully.

"Private Swan, good luck in the competition! Just shoot higher, the jury has a bad sense of humor!"

(1) - General James T. Conway - 34th commander of the U.S. Marine Corps (2006 - 2010). In 2010, he was succeeded by General James F. Amos. James Conway commented extremely negatively about the possibility of allowing women to participate in combat operations.


End file.
